Demi-jinchuuriki
by shamhlu
Summary: The jinchuuriki know about Zetsu's plan and are coming up with a way to stop it. How do the gods of another dimension fit in. Through a shared mind-scape they don't have to be as lonely but will that help Naruto who has suffered more than the others. A bit cliche at the start, but it gets better later on.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Finally, an update! I've rewritten this part, there have been some minor changes, and I've added a few things, I'll be updating the story soon so, yeah, this is the first part, I don't think that much is different from the original prologue, but here it is. Soon the lightning thief will be updated and then I'll get back to the sea of monsters, I'm going to be completely re-writing the lightning thief but the sea of monsters will be mostly unchanged, it is only on the forth chapter so far. I hope you enjoy.**

Jinchuuriki. It refers to those that hold one of the bijuu inside them. They are hated and feared by everyone and their lives are always hard. They are weapons to their villages, at least that is what most people assume they are, they could destroy armies with the power of the bijuu yet they do not long to be free, they are beaten but don't fight against their oppression, but... there is a reason for that. They are planning to leave. All of the bijuu originally come from the ten tails which used to be the world tree until its chakra was stolen. They are all connected.

When the sage of six paths imprisoned his mother and the juubi's body in the moon he failed to notice that something escaped the prison before it was fully formed. Zetsu. A parasitic life form Kaguya, the six paths mother, created using the last of hers and the ten tails power. He had one goal, to revive his "mother" Kaguya. The six paths went on to have a family and eventually had three children who all started their respected clans, the Uchiha, the Senju and the Uzumaki.

The bijuu were later freed by the sage when he created bodies for them out of pure chakra. All of the bijuu were still connected and all of them could feel each other they had a connection, it was hundreds of years later that they realised there was another connected to them. Zetsu being made of the last of the chakra making up the Shinju, it was not aware that the bijuu knew of his existence. A connection existed between the ten of them but Zetsu could not properly access it due to not being a bijuu, but the bijuu could see him and could see it's memories.

The bijuu viewed Zetsu's past and his goal and knew that the needed to stop him but all of them were already imprisoned in their Jinchuuriki, except for Kurama. Kurama tracked it down but got caught up in a fight between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. Madara, the fool that he was, thought he could control the kyuubi which angered him greatly, to the point where he started to fight him, Hashirama believed that the kyuubi was coming to attack Konoha so fought as well.

Eventually as the Kyuubi was about to kill Hashirama and Madara, Mito Uzumaki came and sealed the kyuubi inside herself and Hashirama finished off Madara or so he thought. After that Hashirama not fully trusting the Uchiha said that Madara could control the bijuu with his Sharingan and he fought them both. Taking credit for this feat he allowed this fear of him to inspire legends. He also greatly over exaggerated his power.

The kyuubi informed the other bijuu that Zetsu got away and he was sealed away. They were not happy but knew that it would take years for it to get the necessary equipment to start his plan so they decided to outlive their hosts and escape then to kill Zetsu. They tried to get along with their Jinchuuriki's but they didn't trust them especially Mito. Eventually their hosts died but to their irritation the humans tried to seal them again only Mito successfully transferred Kurama to the next Jinchuuriki, a young girl named Kushina.

The other bijuu escaped but in the next few years they had to fight for their freedom and fought the idiots who wanted to claim the title of bijuu slayer. Eventually the humans captured them whilst they were sleeping or unguarded and they were all resealed but after all of the lives lost trying to reclaim them people resented the Jinchuuriki as they both feared their power and thought that they were the bijuu reincarnated.

This was seemingly proved with Shukaku's Jinchuuriki as they chose to use a bad seal which gave Shukaku access to their Jinchuuriki's conscious but it resulted in the Jinchuuriki losing his mind as they could hear the whispers of the bijuu through their shared mind link. The Jinchuuriki could not hear what was being said but the constant whispers drove him to insanity, he could not sleep but it was not the bijuu's fault. This was when the myth that Shukaku ate souls while they slept began.

The bijuu were horrified at what happened to their Jinchuuriki and tried to help them by allowing them some access to their power to protect them from all of the pain they had and gave them bloodlines. This proved to be a mistake as they were further ostracised by their villages and were forced into becoming ninjas to basically be weapons for their villages.

The bijuu became even more disgusted by the treatment of their tenants so they started to bring them into the shared mindscape to give them some human contact with the other Jinchuuriki. None of the villages knew anything about this. Kushina being the only one who was a secret Jinchuuriki to other humans revealed something to them that not even the bijuu expected. She was a Goddess.

She came from another world and came here to see what it was like. Her real name was Artemis and she was the Goddess of the moon on her world she revealed that there were other Gods were on this world. Apparently, she was not actually able to use her powers now because the body she was using is a mere fraction of her power and once she died "she" would go back to the source of her power which was her original body.

The bijuu eventually told the Jinchuuriki about Zetsu and how it planned to use Madara, who was alive, to put the world in an illusion so that he could revive its mother of course the Jinchuuriki agreed to try to track them down before they could begin their plan.

Eventually the Jinchuuriki to Gyuki died and Gyuki was freed he ended up fighting the third Raikage even though Gyuki was weak after being unsealed he was still strong enough to hold off most of Kumo and made it to the outskirts of the village where they faced off against each other. Though he was weak and tired he was still impressed that the Raikage managed to fight him until he could be sealed. He was sealed into a young orphan boy named Killer B.

Another Jinchuuriki was also created by extracting the bijuu out of an expecting mother named Mari. Kukuo being one of the more sensitive bijuu nearly broke down when she was being extracted as this was the end for all Jinchuuriki. Mari was a very sensitive woman, she was very tall and very muscular but was very shy most of the time she didn't particularly like many "humans" but the father of her soon to be born was different.

Mari's last words to Kukuo and the other Jinchuuriki were _"I'm so sorry I have to leave you all. I love you all and I just want you to know that all of you are my family. Kushina I've always thought of you as a big sister you are the reason I lived do long and the rest of you I love you the same way. I don't have long now but soon you'll be able to meet my daughter, she's so beautiful and I know your all going to love her. It seems it's my time to go, I love you all"_ and like that a fine woman was gone.

Finally, Kukuo was re-sealed, resulting in Hana the newest Jinchuuriki of Kukuo she was a large child and her mother was likely to die even if the bijuu wasn't extracted from the her. The older Jinchuuriki realised that their time was ending.

At this point Roshi the young Jinchuuriki to Son Goku at the age of 7 left his village of Iwa.

His official excuse was that he wanted to learn to control his power but the other Jinchuuriki found out that he left to begin the search he met up with one of the elder Jinchuuriki named Hotaru who was Chomei's Jinchuuriki. She was a beautiful woman with a dark complexion she had dark green hair and orange eyes. She was originally from Kumo until she was kidnapped at a young age to became Taki's Jinchuuriki.

She became a missing ninja of Taki the only minor country to have a Jinchuuriki. She left after finding out she was pregnant. She knew that in Taki her daughter would be discriminated against for being her daughter. Eventually her past caught up with her and she was captured. She was kept in a cell until her daughter was born.

The village leader then forced her daughter to become the next Jinchuuriki and during a painful extraction told Chomei _"Chomei, we have been together for a long time but it's coming to an end."_ Chomei's response was to cry slightly. _"Chomei will you promise me one thing? Please look after my daughter, raise her as your own. I didn't know her father well but he was one of the few that was nice and treated me as a human being. Please promise me you'll raise her."_ Chomei cried out a response of "Yes" and another great Jinchuuriki died.

The next Jinchuuriki to go was the Jinchuuriki to the sanbi Isobu died in by being assassinated for growing too powerful for the village to control and he was murdered. This taught the other Jinchuuriki two things, not to trust the "humans" and to always hide their power form them to make them think you were weak. The next Jinchuuriki was a barely one-year-old named Yagura. Her mother abandoned her as soon as she became the Jinchuuriki and her father was nowhere to be found.

Another Jinchuuriki casualty this one on a mission the host of Saiken the six-tailed slug. The slug was free for a short amount of time during which managed to find out that Madara had taken an apprentice of sorts so that when he died he would have someone to continue with "his" plan. Apparently, he somehow gained the Gedo Mazo statue and was planning to capture the bijuu.

How Saiken found this out was easy as neither Madara or Zetsu expected anyone to know she simply split off a part of her similar to how the slug summon Katsyu breaks down and snuck in while no one was looking and found out some more details of the plan this way. Though Zetsu thought he knew everything, he only knew the general points not exact details which is why this was done.

Unfortunately, whilst communicating with her ulterior self she was unaware of her surroundings and was sealed into a young boy by the name of Utakata though fortunately her slug did not disappear and due to the psychic connection between the two the bijuu had another spy on the inside. The Jinchuuriki and the bijuu were now trying to come up with a countermeasure to fight against them.

Thought they had no ideas at the time they knew they had plenty of time to go as Madara had now died and his false rinnegan eyes had been transplanted to a young Uzumaki boy in Ame. They knew that he would have to be old enough to use the Gedo Mezu for their plan to come into effect and now they had plenty of time to come up with a plan.

The next container to die was the nibi's, Matatabi's, container who contracted a rare disease that only the healing chakra of Kurama could heal which unfortunately was too hard to keep sending across the connection to heal him. His name was Fumio and he was a very strong man but couldn't live off of the connection between the as if the chakra was sent too much it might damage his ability to come to the mindscape.

His reasoning behind this was _"If I have to give up seeing you, my family, then I would rather die."_ This led to a big argument saying his life was more important to which he replied _"I want my last moments to be with you. Frankly I'm terrified of dying so at least allow my last moments to be with you and my little Yugito."_ He died the next day his last words being _"Yugito I'm sorry I have to leave you but I'm trusting you with your family now trust them and even when times get hard live on for me and as for you Matatabi look after my baby girl for me would you now I think a nice nap would be good. I'll just go for a nice sleep, please don't wake me up Matatabi."_ He then fell asleep and the extraction began, it was painless for him as he was already dead.

The next Jinchuuriki, his daughter Yugito who was brought to him by a woman who stayed with him for a short amount of time and called herself Amorette. She returned several months later and gave him their daughter who was now six months old.

Amorette said she had to leave for her homeland and that her family have rules about relationships so she must leave. He was upset as she was the first woman to ever care for him in any way due to his Jinchuuriki status.

And so Yugito was left alone with no one to look after her. Luckily Killer B managed to find her and thought he was young he protected her from most of the hate and took as much of it onto himself instead of the baby girl. He made sure to look after her at all times and became a guardian of sorts to her. He remembered her father always looked after him when he was getting beat up and he made a promise to himself and all the other Jinchuuriki. He would guard her and take all the hate for her. His reasoning was that no one deserved to live like they had to so he would make sure she didn't.

The oldest Jinchuuriki of his generation, Bunpuku, the second generation Jinchuuriki of Shukaku knew his time was ending. He had so many regrets about his life as in the past he was the reason many of the Jinchuuriki were treated the way they were. In the past when the whispers of the bijuu wouldn't stop he had problems sleeping and it drove him insane for a time.

The bijuu managed to teach him to block it out, but it was too late. When he awoke he was in a prison cell and had been for the past 50 years they kept him locked here and his only solace was talking to his brothers and sisters in the link. He was one of the few Jinchuuriki to reach a substantial age. Hell, he was one of the few ninjas to reach a substantial age.

He was now an old man at the age of 73 and he was over the bloodlust he used to have in his youth and now he wanted a way of being remembered. He knew he would never have children he was too old but he wanted to be remembered. Maybe he can give all his knowledge to the new Jinchuuriki he loved them he saw in them a little bit of himself before he lost his mind, he knew that is what is would do. He would leave them knowledge on all his experiences all his jutsu, everything.

He heard footsteps coming towards him, that was a first. No one ever came to see him the guards only came to give food and that was only in the morning and at night. It was currently about midday as the only ones in the bijuu link are the bijuu themselves. That probably meant it was time, they were going to remove Shukaku.

The Kazekage, Rasa if he recalled correctly, walked in. _"It is time Bunpuku."_

 _"So, who is the 'lucky' soul having Shukaku in them?"_ asked Bunpuku.

 _"I don't see how that is any of your business."_

 _"I like to know which poor child's life you're going to destroy."_

 _"It's my son."_ Rasa whispered.

 _"What seal are you going to use?"_

 _"The same as yours."_

 _"What? You're going to drive your own child insane? Are you mad?"_

 _"…"_

 _"I need a weapon for the village."_

 _"And you think that destroying your son's life will give you that?"_

 _"…"_

 _"Does your wife know?"_

 _"No."_ Rasa whispered.

 _"She won't know, she has to leave, something about her family rules. It doesn't matter anyway it is time for the sealing."_

'I guess this is it, Shukaku can you do me a favour'

 **"Of course, what do you need my old friend?"**

'Teach the new Jinchuuriki my style, teach him everything, my jutsu everything. Make sure they all know as well and protect him make sure he doesn't suffer.'

 **"Of course, my friend. I'm going to miss you; you remind me of tou-san."**

'Thank you.'

It was then that one of the oldest Jinchuuriki's to ever live died he died happy knowing that he would not be forgotten and that the pain of life is over.

 _"Hello little man"_ he said looking towards Garra, Rasa's youngest son, _"may you enjoy your life and your new family I hope you have a good life."_

Then there was only one Jinchuuriki from the second generation. Kushina sat on the top of the Hokage monument with her arms hugging her knees, tears streaming down her face. She sat on the top of her boyfriend's head she just needed to be alone he couldn't understand. There was no one who could understand at this point, Roshi was the closest but even then, no one could truly understand what it is to be a Jinchuuriki.

To be a Jinchuuriki. She just realised it even she didn't know. She was a goddess she couldn't understand her status was a secret not open to the public. She knew she would do what she could to stop this Zetsu's plan but she would need to be careful. If she died she could not actually return she could do nothing if she died and now, there is a reason she knew she was weak compared to her original.

She started to stand, there are so many options to what could happen she could tell Minato he might not believe her. Obito was his student he wouldn't believe him. As she stood up fully one would notice the bulge in her stomach. There were problems with the bijuu connections because she was pregnant the seal would be weak.

The only reason the others risked using the connection when pregnant was because Mari knew she was going to die and Hotaru had Roshi to boost the signal and take the both of them across. She didn't want to risk it her baby was not going to be a Jinchuuriki she would make sure that her baby would not suffer.

She went to her apartment; Minato was waiting for her he was the one man she loved at least this part of her did, she had no idea what the rest of her would think. She would have her baby and then the rest of her would do what it would.

Her baby was coming she was so happy she couldn't wait! It hurt, though, he was taking his damn time, but he was her son dattabane! She really needed to get rid of that it was getting annoying and what if her son inherited it. She found out that the other Olympians had been here to visit but she was the only one that she knew would go the way she did by making her own 'body'.

She'd never had a demigod before but she was still a virgin she used an illusion to get her boyfriend to make her baby. It may seem manipulative but she didn't want her baby to be in trouble for her oath being broken.

There was her baby. He was hers. Her baby boy she would protect him with all she had. She was exhausted. Biwako came and took him so that Minato could fix the seal she went out of the room and Minato was beside her keeping poor Kurama-Chan in her. If Kurama wanted out Kurama would probably be out.

She heard a scream and turned there was the masked man, Obito, she could not call out to him but what was he doing here and why was he holding… her baby! He was after the kyuubi and was threatening her baby she couldn't allow that. She tried to stand but Kurama and just giving birth took its toll.

She couldn't she what was going on but were those explosive tags, Obito had her now Kurama-Chan was getting out. Kurama was talking to her why couldn't she understand, 'why she didn't open the link?' then they could have been warned. No! It was her fault! If this was her fault then, no! Her son could be hurt because of her.

There was a flash. Minato! He took her. _"Where is he? Where is my baby Minato?"_

He was on the bed! He was on the bed! He was fine! Her baby was ok!

She looked outside, why was Kurama-Chan attacking? Kurama has no idea what is going on. She tried to stop Minato tell him to call of the ninja but he was gone. She was alone with her baby. She remembered the name, the name they decided on with help from Jiraiya-sensei.

Naruto.

Minato came back he took Naruto, why would he… No not her baby she wouldn't let him take her baby and make him into a Jinchuuriki. No! She sprinted away to find him to stop Kurama-Chan to save her baby.

She saw Kurama-Chan disappear in a flash of light. That could only mean… Where… Where is her baby. She searched for Minato's chakra signature. It was miles away. She sprinted she came just in time to see him finish the hand signs.

 _"NO!"_ she screamed but it was too late the ghostly apparition of the Shinigami appeared behind him, she heard Kurama-Chan screaming, telling him to stop. She heard Naruto crying, screaming as the cold hand plunged into his stomach sealing his fate as a Jinchuuriki. Kurama-Chan was gone but Minato was still there. He didn't have long; she went to his side sobbing all the way.

 _"Why?"_ she asked her voice barely a whisper.

 _"Why our son why did you condemn his life to hell. Why? WHY?_ _ **WHY?**_ _"_ Screaming the last sentence with as much anger as she could while staring at her husband's dying form.

 _"What kind of man would I be if I asked someone else's child to bear this burden?"_

 _"A smart man."_

 _"No, a coward."_ He said simply, _"this is going to be the last time I will ever see you at least try to be happy"_ he said wheezing, he didn't have long and he knew it.

 _"I love you."_ She said cradling his head in her lap, tears streaming down her face but she smiled, she smiled. For him.

 _"And I love you and so"_ he said, going into his pocket, _"Kushina Uzumaki"_ he pulled out a ring, _"will you please marry me? I am the Hokage so I already have the paperwork done all I need is you to say yes."_

 _"Yes"_ she cried a fresh batch of tears coming down _"of course I'll marry you."_

 _"Good, please take care of our son."_

 _"I will with all of my being."_

 _"Then, if this is going to be the last chance I get to say it."_ Kushina sobbed even more as the harsh reality hit her.

 _"Kushina Uzumaki, I love y…"_

And with that Konoha's Yondaime Hokage, Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō, the husband of Kushina Uzumaki and the father of Naruto Uzumaki, Minato Namikaze died.

Shortly after Kushina started to feel weak and her heart slowed.

 _"No, I can't die now."_

But her body gave up, she curled around her baby and with her arms around her husband with Naruto in the middle and whispered into her baby's ear, _"I'm so sorry sweetie but I'll come back as soon as I can I promise."_

And with that Kushina Uzumaki died.

In the deserts of Suna Garra no Subaku cried causing the sand around him to curl around him protectively.

In the mountains of Kumo Yugito Nii cried as hard as she could because she felt the nice lady who was nice to her in her dreams go away. Killer B stopped and at that moment he felt a wave of grief as one of the few genuinely nice people in the world left. He stood in silence for a moment before hugging Yugito so they could cry on each other's shoulders.

Yagura at the age of five she felt she could handle anything but then she couldn't feel **her** the person who she trusted who she loved, she was gone.

Roshi now in his early twenties was walking down a lane when he felt a wave of pain hit him, she was gone her connection broken. So, he did the only thing he could, he sat under a tree and cried.

Hana being very young couldn't understand everything very well but she knew that all of the 'people' around her were monsters so when she felt the one who stopped the monsters, she told her that was her job, disappear she wept in despair.

Fu knew that everyone around her were not the same as her she was better and they hated her for it they were jealous so she didn't care so when one of the few people she cared about was gone she sat in her tree and cried.

Killer B sat there as he hugged Yugito he could feel a new connection being formed, it seemed there was a new member to their family. He must have been Kushina's son they all knew he would be born son and when they found out she was pregnant they were worried that the same thing that happened to Hoturo and Mari would happen to her but she was the Hokage's girlfriend. Unfortunately, the newly formed Akatsuki chose her as their first victim. She was unassuming as she could not enter the link with her failing seal. They tried to warn her but none of them could get anywhere near Konoha. They failed her. He cried harder.

Naruto didn't know what had happened he was scared then mommy made the scarred go away, but then she did as well but she was right there so he just sat there and cried.

In another world Artemis stiffened, she was at her camp when suddenly memories hit her, so many memories but it was the later ones that caused her breath to stop. Her baby was still there in that horrible place but she couldn't go back her father and the rest of the Gods had been there and they all agreed because it was for the best to shut it off from their world. At least temporarily until it was safe to go. 16 years it would be locked away inaccessible to everyone even the Gods.

She gasped as tears rolled down her cheeks she had just actively condemned her son to a life of hell without knowing it.

She cried. Her hunters watched confused. They heard her muttering, _"Please be ok please just be ok until then, mommas coming baby"_

On Olympus, many of the other Gods barely cared that they either had children there or that they left them alone and scared. None of them knew what their children had become, none knew the pain they would suffer or the lives they would live. They all assumed they would be fine at least until they were allowed to return for them.

The problem with other worlds is that you have can't keep the 'door' open to long as it causes damage to the rest of the world. To stop this the Gods agreed to close the 'door' to this new world. Some weren't happy about it but agreed it needed to be done. Most of the Gods had, in secret, gone there to have children. This gave them a chance to wind down for their Godly duties.

Most of them had actually created a body for themselves using their power which had the result of them being able to spend as much time as they could unfortunately they went in at different times so they couldn't keep track of one another. Most of the Gods chose adult bodies with the exception of Artemis who chose a child's and created hers to join another family.

This meant that they were likely to die earlier because the body could only handle so much Artemis was the exception as she put such a small amount of her power in her that she wasn't even demi-god level but was strong enough to live. The others eventually left leaving only Artemis' body there which would come across the dimension regardless if the 'door' was open or not.

As it was none of the Gods could cross to the dimension for the next 16 years so it would be then that they saw their children.


	2. Chapter 2

(4 years later)

It was once again October tenth and Naruto Uzumaki now four years old was once again on the hiding from a mob of villagers with a random assortment of weapons. There were also ninjas in the mob. How was he, a three-year-old hiding from them, he wasn't. The mob was playing with their 'prey'. This usually happened at least 2 or 3 times a week.

The rest of the time the poor toddler was either in the apartment he was given, which was always broken into and damaged by the villagers, or he was being beat around by smaller groups. He barely ate anything and what he did eat was normally mouldy or poisoned. You could tell he was malnourished just by looking at him, his ribs could be seen and so could most of his other bones. He was frail and sickly looking but he ran to get further away from them, his hiding spot wouldn't work for long.

He lost them for a second and snuck into an alley. He hid in one of the bins and waited for them to pass him by. The bin was moved and he was tossed in front of an angry mob of ninjas and civilians, he tried to back away but he knocked into a man who towered over him. He looked down on him and laughed at his scared face.

Then the torture began. It lasted for so long and by the time it started to slow down the sun was up and other civilians started coming out. At about 8 they stopped and left his body there broken and in so much pain. He was still conscious at this point so he could see the bones skin and muscle heal up.

He made his way to his apartment and fell onto his 'mattress' which had more springs in it than anything that resembled a cushion. He looked around at his room which looked like a bomb had hit it which was right as many people had bombed him at some point but he always healed from it. His eyes fell on a knife that one of his attackers must have left from an attack. He lifted it and stared at his reflection on the blade.

He looked down on his thin wrist and brought the knife to it. He cut himself and he could already see it healing. He kept doing this for a while. He wanted it to end, he didn't like living. He took the knife one last time and plunged it into his chest. He felt unconsciousness take him and he smiled. Was it finally over? Was he free?

He woke up in his room in the same place without a scar and the knife was still in his hand only the blood around him told him it wasn't a dream.

(4 years later)

He woke up in a room he didn't recognise. He tried to move but found himself crucified to a backboard. He cried. Why was he still alive? He had another suicide attempt. There was a woman standing in front of him. She had blonde hair and green eyes. She looked at the eight-year-old and started speaking he was told that she was going to break him over and over and that she would bring friend to 'have some fun' with him.

She broke into the demon brats house only to find him in a pool of his own blood with a kunai in his chest she pulled it out and watched the demon heal itself. So, it tried to kill itself that couldn't happen she hadn't tortured it enough so she took it home.

She decided that she should teach it a lesson. She decided it was time and she would make sure he knew his place, she had a lost a lot in the demons' attack.

(Three weeks later)

Yugao Uzuki was a newly promoted Jonin heading towards ANBU, her sensei died and she found out her child died in the Kyuubi attack she went into a small depression but managed to make it through it with the help of Kurenai and Anko her best friends and teammates who also had to deal with the loss of her sensei. Hayate also helped with this.

All of them had lost people that night but as an orphan, Kushina had acted as a mother figure while she was her sensei and even when they made it to Chunin she was always there for her. When she found Kushina was pregnant she was so happy to have a 'little brother or sister'. Kushina had laughed at that and thanked her for that.

It was then that Kushina asked her to be her baby's Godmother. She agreed immediately and was brought into the biggest hug she could imagine. She remembered that day as it was one of the greatest days of her life. Now she had a mission, she had to find the young blonde Jinchuuriki of the very thing that took away her sensei. She tried to see him as a young boy and not the monster that attacked her home and took her sensei but she couldn't.

She had never been part of the mobs for him a few times but didn't feel any satisfaction so she just watched and tried to deny the happy feeling when she watched him suffer. But he had been missing for three weeks, it wasn't noticed at first but when no one saw the boy for so long the council realised they could have lost their weapon.

She had been assigned to find him or at least his corpse but she hoped for the former, as her sensei had told her only an Uzumaki could hold… the… Kyuubi. Her eyes widened, realisation hit her. No. There was only one Uzumaki in the village before the Kyuubi attack and that was her sensei. Her pregnant sensei. She had been watching her Godson suffer, she had made no attempt to help him if she saw him being beaten up. She needed to find him, she needed to apologise she needed to save him from whoever took him and she would make sure to look after him and make sure he's never hurt again.

Determination filled her as she scoured the village for leads, at first, she asked several villagers who lived near his apartment. The responses were… as to be expected, the villagers sneered and said they would not go near the 'demon', several of the more vocal demon haters nearly made Yugao loose it, but she acted calmly, only acting if the Sandaime's law was broken.

She then decided that the next place to look was his home, she nearly cried at the state of her godson's home. She hadn't told anyone about her suspicions, even if it was pretty obvious, she saw some of the Sandaime's reasons, a child of the forth would be hunted relentlessly by many nations. So, she searched his home, his ratty mattress that had springs sticking out making it painful even to look at, she searched his bathroom and froze at the sight of all the dried blood.

She glanced around the room, so much blood, too much for an eight-year-old. She searched the room and found a kunai lying on the ground near the bath, there were footprints through the dry blood, but whoever did it had the sense to wipe their feet on his doormat. There were no fingerprints on the kunai, gaps in the blood in the rough shape of hands stained the floor.

Someone was lying on the floor, they held the kunai? What for? The kunai was years old, rusted and nearly dyed red with blood, it had been used a lot, but for what? A horrible suspicion came to Yugao, she hoped she was wrong.

The person was on the floor, Naruto, their figure was painted grey on the floor of red, showing he was here, she traced the footsteps, adult, female, hundred and thirty pounds, wearing boots, not ninja, civilian? Or a good ninja. They came here, took the knife off Naruto and threw it to the side, then grabbed Naruto and left, she followed the footsteps as they led to the doormat, a dirty rag. The blood was evident.

So, someone took Naruto away. Where? She retraced the steps and found something interesting, "they slipped." Yugao muttered, "slipped on blood, must have been fresh." She tried to ignore the implication that this gave and looked up to the dresser, a bloody handprint, no fingerprints, she still wore the gloves, but they left something else, "a clump of hair." Yugao said, failing to hide the smirk, hair was traceable, blonde, not common so that narrowed down the suspects.

She lifted it, it was caught on the dresser as the assailant slipped. The reason was down to the fact that the dresser was more splinter than functioning furniture, the sides were spiky and impossible to use. Regardless Yugao examined it, it was dirty blonde, not Yamanaka, not Naruto either, his was golden blonde, so who? Most people in the village had brown or black hair, with some exotic alternatives like herself and Anko.

"They were civilian," she mussed, "a ninja wouldn't leave this much evidence, even if they were trying to play the part of a civilian." She looked back to the footprints, "and rich." At the bottom of the shoe it showed the logo, "these were expensive shoes, so the civilian is either a foreigner, unlikely since they wouldn't go after Naruto without knowing what-who he is." She flinched at her own mistake. "So rich civilians in Konoha?" She thought through all the names she knew, only one fit, "Haruno."

And so, she studied the Haruno's and tracked their movements, asking villagers, she managed to find out that Mebuki Haruno had been seen going to his apartment when he was last seen. She had then followed the Haruno matriarch to a warehouse, she snuck in through a side window and followed her down to the basement level.

There she saw the most horrendous sight she had ever seen. Her Godson was tied up and was being tortured by a large group of women. The room smelt of blood and… sex, they had raped him, she realised, her head was reeling so she looked to the centre of the room. She nearly threw up when she saw what they were doing to him, he lay on the ground with his hands nailed down to the ground. Right now, he was being cut up by three women and she felt bile coming up when she recognised who it was.

Mebuki was currently torturing him. She leapt down and stopped her just before she plunged the knife into his chest. She stood over him protectively and pushed her away. She could see that Naruto had passed out a few minutes ago and could already see his skin patching itself up. She looked up to see the shocked look on Mebuki's face. She saw all of the them running out of there and could make out some of the faces as the wives of high ranking officials. It was just her and Naruto's unconscious body.

She grabbed onto Mebuki and tied her before unceremoniously throwing her to the ground and turning her attention to freeing Naruto. She tried to move him but found him bound to the ground using ninja wire and chains, she would take a while to cut through them, she created three shadow clones and sent them to find her teammates and the Third.

Anko and Kurenai arrived first both looking at the downed form of Mebuki before turning to see Yugao and Naruto still tied down, they scowled upon seeing the young child. To them he killed their sensei and her child, they both thought she had brought them to 'take their own revenge' on the demon. Kurenai raised a kunai but was stopped by Yugao.

"What are you doing Yugao?" Kurenai asked confused, why would Yugao stop her from taking justice for their sensei's death. "This is a bit much though." She said looking around the room and seeing the blood, she may hate the 'demon' but this was cruel.

"Yeah why bring us here just to stop us now, and what is that smell? Holy shit! Did you rape him? I mean… that's… that's a bit far but at least let us take our revenge Yu-Chan? This demon deserves this; it took away Kushina-sensei." Anko said equally confused, after her 'sensei' Orochimaru left her while she was young she had no one, but then Kushina-sensei saved her and became her sensei and mother figure.

"He's just a boy and Sensei would be disappointed at you." Yugao screamed though she had tears from the earlier revelation and the state of Naruto's body.

"No, she wouldn't! Sensei is dead because of this monster!" Anko screamed, she knew her sensei and now that she was gone she wanted revenge she hated that demon even more than Orochimaru.

"You're right." Yugao whispered and Anko and Kurenai calmed down thinking she would help them now. "She would hate you, she would despise you." At this both Anko and Kurenai froze.

"Don't, Kushina-sensei cared about us!" Anko yelled, "Sensei was-sensei… Don't talk about sensei like that." Anko said, she couldn't think of anything to say to that.

"Yugao, why would you say that, I know losing sensei was hard on you it was hard on all of us, but don't just say she'd hate us." Kurenai said, her voice quiet, talking about their sensei had become some-what taboo to them.

"She would hate what you, she would hate us." Yugao said, her mind was having trouble forming the words and tears escaped her, "we let this happen, we let them… we let them hurt her son. My Godson." She finally whispered, it had all suddenly become very real. Kurenai froze her face paled white and her eyes widened, becoming glassy, she finally looked at Naruto and quietly whispered out "no" but Anko just looked scared.

"No." Anko finally whispered, "no her son died. It can't be… It can't!" She screamed at the end.

"Remember what sensei said about the kyuubi's Jinchuuriki." Yugao said, puling herself together.

"They can only be an Uzumaki." Kurenai whispered out.

"That doesn't mean he's her son!" Anko screamed out.

"So, trying to kill one of her remaining family is any better? Besides who else does he look like?" Yugao said.

"Minato," Kurenai whispered out with tears slowly crawling down her face.

"N-no ple-ea-sse no." Anko whispered out, shaking her head violently and her eyes closed, denying it. "No, no, no, no, NO, **NO** " She finished by breaking down into tears and collapsing onto her knees, she was quickly joined by Kurenai. Yugao was tempted to join them after looking down on her Godsons body, but she couldn't. She had to help him, then she could beg him for his forgiveness. She finally managed to cut him free of his bindings and then just held his body close to her, he was cold and his pulse was weak. She tried using some medical ninjutsu.

The third Hokage was alerted to come to the warehouse and when he arrived the sight of Naruto Uzumaki's unnaturally still body in the arms of Yugao Uzuki, his heart nearly stopped at the sight of his self-proclaimed grandson and thought that he was dead but then saw the soft rise and fall of his chest and was relieved.

He looked around to find the sight of two of his most promising kunoichi, Anko and Kurenai, crying on the floor whispering to themselves. The looked broken, what happened to them?

"What happened?" He asked Yugao.

"Why did you lie to us? Why did you tell us he was dead? Why did you let me think my Godson was dead?"

The third looked shocked, then he schooled his features, he then spoke with no emotion in his voice. "How did you find out?" He asked.

"I guessed."

Sigh. "At the start, I hated him as much as you did, my wife was dead, my successor and so many of our village had fallen. I wanted him to suffer so I told all those who would have been relevant that he died. I then announced what he was to the village to make him suffer. I regretted it. That is why I made the law to protect him. I grew to care for him but could do nothing to help him. The ANBU hate him so I can't have them guard him and I was too ashamed to tell you I had lied."

"Shame? My Godson is nearly dead because of your pride?" Yugao yelled standing up and cradling the small boy in her arms, he whimpered and she looked down again, fresh tears breaking out.

"Don't try to take the moral high ground here, I know you have been no help, I know you watched him as the mobs hunted him down I know you even pointed them in the right direction on occasion." Was his reply.

She couldn't reply to that; she was too busy crying due to her shame. At this point Kurenai and Anko had stopped crying and had moved closer.

"Is he ok?" Kurenai whispered out through sobs.

"What do you think?" Yugao replied which made both Kurenai and Anko flinch back as if hit.

"Yugao." The aged Hokage said sternly. "You're in no position to say anything."

"You're right, he's unconscious, possibly comatose. I-I don't know enough about medical ninjutsu to help but he seems to have stabilised." Anko and Kurenai flinched at the words.

"What happened here?" The third asked with authority.

They turned to the Haruno, she spoke of exactly what they did to him, she even seemed smug. As the list went on they became more ashamed. During the three weeks, he'd been tortured in ways that would make Ibiki scream out every secret he knew and cry like a child. He'd been raped, crucified, gutted, burned alive, been a target dummy for all of the Justus the ninja could think of and he had been kept awake nearly the whole time. When he did collapse into unconsciousness he was woken as quick as possible.

By the end all four ninjas were paler than Orochimaru. At the end, the third had one question "You raped him?" he questioned, Kurenai, Anko and Yugao became green at this.

"No, I wouldn't touch that filth in that way."

"Anything else you want to confess?" The third asked angrily.

"Yes, ha-ha, we wanted him to know his place. So, we got some of the ninja in the group to help with that, they used henge's to turn into as many kunoichi as they could. He'll be afraid of women his entire life," she giggled, "and guess what, you three were used a lot, along with that bitch of a sensei of yours, she may be dead but he will curse her forever. I thought you were smart, but now I see you all are just demon loving bitches."

The three were horrified their 'little brother'-could they even call him that-would hate them and his mother. "You bitch." Anko yelled before taking a kunai to gut her. She was stopped by the Third. "Anko," he said, "she will be put in a cell and tortured before being executed publicly. No one will hurt Naruto like this again, she will serve as an example to the others."

Once the women calmed down he brought them all to the hospital where Naruto was given his own room after firing three nurses and getting a doctor to take care of him. It was at this point that the third broke news that nearly broke them.

"What do you mean we can't look after him?" Yugao asked.

"He's going to be traumatised by this and I'm going to keep him away from anyone involved in this incident." The third replied.

"But I'm his Godmother." Yugao said, horrified at the prospect of being kept from her Godson.

"He'll remember you from tonight. He's a smart boy, and he won't forget easily, there are barely a handful who he trusts anyway." Was his reply.

"We won't leave him unprotected anymore." Anko said.

"Then do it from the shadows, he can't see you." The third then got a glimmer in his eyes that only old people can do, "Anko, Kurenai, Yugao, you will be promoted to ANBU and act as his guards until further notice."

They looked down on his comatose body and wondered when, if ever, he would wake. The third told them where to go and they left to report to the ANBU commander who gave them masks and equipment. As soon as they got all their new equipment, they returned to the hospital to watch over his sleeping form, silently agreeing to never let him get hurt again.

(In Naruto's mind)

Naruto woke up in what looked like a sewer with about a foot of water. He sat down and cried the memories of what happened still haunting him. He stayed like that for hours ignoring the noises coming from around him, finally though he stood up, looked around and decided that he needed to get out of here, he knew the people who hurt him would come back.

He snuck through the sewer, even though there was no light source he still could see, though that was the last thing on his mind. He stayed close to wall and flinched at every single sound, every drop from the leaky ceiling, every splash he accidently caused and continued on his journey. After being lost for a while he decided to follow the only sound other than him, he tried to hide as much as possible, but there was very little to hide behind. He couldn't quite make out what the noise was, but to him it sounded like someone talking to another person who wasn't there.

He made it to a golden gate with a piece paper with some scribbles written on it. behind it he could hear the voice it sounded angry but he could hear the sadness as well from the voice. He tried to see who was behind the gate but he couldn't see who all he could see was the silhouette of something huge but he couldn't see anyone about.

 **"-and now he's in a coma because of them. We need to do something."**

"…"

" **What do you mean introduce yourself, it's not that easy, this seal was designed to keep me away from him. If it were that easy then we might not be in this situation, it's all the Yondaime's fault.** "

"…"

 **"We respected him until the point he sealed me the way he did. If he had done it any other way or if he waited for Kushina, hell if he even tried to talk he would know I never attacked, all I did was stop anyone from going near the hospital where Kushina and the Kit where. They were throwing destructive jutsu and random and destroying parts of the village. Especially the Uchiha. Damn pyromaniacs."**

"…"

 **"Well it wasn't my idea to let them go and breed like rabbits to the point where there was enough of them to have their own district. What the old man thinking."**

"…"

 **"Asura was no better either, he was all about love that was no answer either."**

"…"

 **"Yeah,** ** _he_** **was a bit better but he was still the same, the best ones are them, they understand pain and yearn for happiness."**

"…"

 **"Wait. He's here."**

"…"

 **"Well he can't hear you this damn seal won't let you see or hear him only I can."** Naruto nearly ran away when he saw a pair of eyes each easily twice as tall as the old man who sometimes looks after him. They were red and had a slit like a cat down the middle.

 **"Hello Naruto."**

The voice was talking to him and it seemed to come from the eyes that were staring right at him he couldn't move. He could only stare in horror as they got closer until he could make out the face they were attached to and it was quite the face. A giant fox with deep orange fur, around its eyes were two black circles that went on to its ears. It had nine tails behind it. He had only one thought:

"Kyuubi."

 **"That is how I'm normally referred to as."** The fox said.

"Wh-wh-e-re-re aa-am I?"

 **"You are in your mind, which in your body, which is currently in the hospital in a coma."** Kurama said, the last part sounding sad.

"Wh-wh-y-y a-a-r-re yo-o-u h-e-here?"

 **"I'm inside you. Your Hokage sealed me into you on the day you were born. I was taken out of my last host's seal and appeared in the village, the Hokage put me inside you, on a little bit of ink on your stomach. Calm down I won't hurt you, I'm the one who tries to stop you from hurting."**

"Ok… Are you the re-as-on that I won't die?" He said, the words sounding unsure.

 **"Yes, your body will automatically heal because I'm inside you?"**

"Could you stop please?"

 **"What? Why?"** The Kyuubi was shocked, why would he ask that? The bijuu chakra running through him was the only thing keeping him from death too many times for anyone to be comfortable with.

"Because I want to die."

This broke the Kyuubi's heart, this child wanted to die all because he was a Jinchuuriki, because their lives are torture and his was the worst out of all of them. Sure, the other Jinchuuriki got beat up occasionally and had horrible social lives but they had nothing on his. It was understandable.

 **"No Kit. I can't let you die."**

Naruto looked sad, tears freely fell, and Kurama felt like killing that entire village.

 **"But, I can help you, there are people like you, they won't hurt you, they can't hurt you. They will be your friend. Would you like that?"**

"Yes please… Are you why…they hurt me?"

 **"Yes… I'm sorry, they think you're me and are mad because I 'attacked' their village."**

"How did you get in the middle of the village on my birthday?"

 **"Like I said, I was unsealed from your mother. A man named Obito Uchiha tried to put me under his control to attack the village unfortunately that idiot overestimated the power of the sharingan."**

"Ok I understand… But… what is a muter, muter, mo-ot-there?" It was the first time he had heard that word.

The Kyuubi looked shocked but quickly understood that this was the first time he heard the word. Again, the Kyuubi felt sorry for this poor child.

 **"A mother is the person who cares for you, she's normally the person who gave birth to you, she teaches you things and helps you. Your mother is gone, I'm sorry Kit."**

"Can… Can you be… my mother?"

The kyuubi was again shocked why would this child want a monster to be his mother, no one wanted the bijuu for anything except power.

 **"Why would you want me as your mother?"**

"Well you said my mother left me so-" **"She didn't leave you kit, she loved you kit, she died."**

"Oh," he looked sad again, and Kurama berated himself, Naruto brightened up a bit, "well you said that mothers care for you, they were there when you were born and teaches stuff. That's what you do. So, could you?"

Kurama smiled sorrowfully at the young Jinchuuriki, **"Yes, of course I'll be your kaa-chan."**

"Thank you… kaa-chan."

 **"Your welcome sochi-kun."**

"Kaa-Chan did you mean it when you said I can have fends?"

 **"Friends?"**

"Yeah that, are there any people like me?"

 **"Yes, you can talk to them through the mindscape, but you have to open the cage."**

"…Kaa-Chan I can't reach it." Naruto sounded scared and was trying his hardest to jump to the paper seal.

 **"Don't worry I'll help."** The kyuubi then used on of its tails to lift Naruto to the seal. Just as he was about to reach the seal and after saying something that sounded suspiciously like "Kaa-Chan is so soft" a hand stopped him from reaching the seal. They both looked at the owner of said hand and Naruto hid in the kyuubi's tail while the kyuubi growled out, **"You!"**

"Kaa-Chan, I'm scared. He's the Yon-nun-da-aai-m-me. Is he going to hurt me?"

 **"No… he won't try to hurt you but he'll try to keep you away from me."**

"Kyuubi, what lies have you told my son?"

 **"I have told him no lies. I've told him the truth. Since you didn't bother to listen to me when I told you to. The whole thing is Obito's fault."**

"What does he have to do with anything he's been dead for many years."

 **"He was the man in the mask who tore me from Kushina, he has been working for Madara but that is not important what is important is what you have done to your son."**

Minato looked shocked, "what do you mean by that?"

 **"He has suffered worse than any other Jinchuuriki and I've met them all, I've seen all of their lives and I can safely say that no one has suffered as much as him in this world."**

"You lie; my people wouldn't do that." Minato screamed. Naruto whimpered and hid further in the kyuubi's fur, Minato calmed and Kyuubi spoke soothing words to calm the poor boy.

 **"Look at what you have done, now calm down Naruto-kun no one's going to hurt you"**

The Kyuubi then told Minato all that has happened in his short life. Minato was left crying for the life he unintentionally gave his son.

 **"This is why I want him to release the seal."**

"To kill himself?!"

 **"No! So, he can meet the others."**

"The others?"

 **"The other Jinchuuriki. We are all connected why the bijuu let the Jinchuuriki meet in the mindscape to keep their sanity, we aren't demons we are chakra… we care for them."**

"So, you won't kill him?"

 **"No! I've been keeping him alive but since your seal won't let me help him more than healing him. Why did you pick this seal anyway, it killed you?"**

"Because you were attacking the village. You were killing innocent villagers."

 **"I didn't attack anyone, they started firing jutsu's at me and started missing, they hit the hospital I protected it from the idiots you employ as ninja. Then I moved away from the hospital to get them to stop shooting at it. I then sensed Obito and started to head towards him. I may have crushed a few people but I didn't care I just wanted to kill that idiot then I saw you fight him and I went to help but he escaped and then you didn't listen when I told you to stop fighting me. Then you called on the Shinigami to seal me."**

"Well I…" Minato began but noticed he was beginning to fade. "I guess my time is up. Naruto, I love you and I'm so sorry, my son."

With that the last remnants of Minato Namikaze died. Naruto stopped hiding in Kyuubi's tail and peered out just in time to see his father disappear.

 **"He's gone now Naruto. Your safe now. Now can you open the seal please?"**

"Yes Kaa-san." And with that he reached out and pulled open the seal. Behind it was another seal in the shape of a spiral. The Kyuubi sighed at this and realised that the seal could not fully be opened without a key seal. This was going to be difficult but at least now they could talk while he was awake. Getting him into the mindscape was going to be hard and he would be unable to interact with any of the Jinchuuriki besides talking.

 **"Well Naruto, now that that seal is gone you can enter the cage but you want be able to touch any of the other Jinchuuriki. You will only be able to talk."**

"Thank you." And with that Naruto entered the cage. He followed his new kaa-san. She led him through an archway that led to a bright light. Naruto closed his eyes and held onto his kaa-chan tightly and he waited till it died down before turning back. He looked out and was amazed by what he saw.

He appeared to be in a giant forest with trees that were bigger than his kaa-san. He was getting scared, his kaa-chan seemed to realise this so he soon found himself on his kaa-chans back which he enjoyed. It was so soft and fluffy like a big orange cloud at that moment in the comfort of his kaa-chan he decided his favourite colour was orange. He slowly fell asleep and for the first time in his short life he fell asleep happy.

He slowly woke up and stayed where he was, he was comfortable, he heard some voices but he didn't wasn't to move. If he stayed there then maybe he wouldn't be hurt anymore, maybe the bad people couldn't reach him here. He felt something tickle his nose and he wrinkled it, the tickling sensation stayed there so he tried to swat it away. He kept missing it but it always returned to tickle him.

He opened his eyes and rubbed them, he faintly heard something that sounded suspiciously like a young girl screaming "Kawaii". He finally opened his eyes to see a giant fluffy tail and assumed that was the perpetrator so he grabbed in and pulled it into his arms with the mission to stop the tickling but upon realising it was as fluffy as his mattress curled up around it, holding on to it tightly. He was lowered to the ground and held onto his blanket

He heard some giggling and opened his eyes again he saw the silhouette of eight people and some oddly shaped moving mountains. Once he saw the people he moved himself behind his giant fluffy 'pillow' to hide from the people who had obviously come to hurt him. He heard a voice that sounded familiar to him and recognised it as his new kaa-san.

 **"Don't worry Naruto they won't hurt you, they are the people who are like you and will be your friends."**

He remembered everything about the last conversation and realised that his bed was his kaa-san's back and that his pillow was one of her tails. He looked about and saw eight people the first looked a bit older than he did, he had red hair and pale blue eyes which had black rings around his eyelids. He was wearing a brown cloak over his other clothes which he couldn't make out. He had a stuffed bear and was holding it close.

The next was a young girl with blonde hair she was about 9 and had dark eyes her hair was done up in a ponytail that fell behind her back. She was wearing a dark purple dress that finished just above her knees.

Next was another girl who looked to be about 12, she had short hair which was a pale green, she was wearing all green with a ninja vest that could be seen underneath it. She had pink eyes with no pupil, she also had a scar going down from her left eye which looked like it had been stitched up. She had a large hook staff with a flower on one end and was holding it behind her. She looked like a ninja and had a forehead protector stitched onto the front of her shirt. It was a protector of Kiri.

Next was a man who looked close to thirty, he had red hair that looked pretty long, he wore it in a ponytail, he had the beginnings of a beard and had a strange blue curved line that went over the bridge of his nose and onto his cheeks. He had a brown had that went over the sides of his face but didn't cover the top of his head at all, on it was a forehead protector for Iwa.

Next was someone who he couldn't really say anything about them, they were nearly as tall as the redheaded man and wore a lot of red. They had armour on with a large hat so the only thing he could see was their hazel eyes. They had a strange object on their back that was giving off some steam.

The person next to the right of them was a boy who didn't look much older than he did. He had black hair, which was getting long and starting to cover one of his eyes, and brown eyes. He was wearing a long blue dress? Was Naruto's first thought that had his chest exposed. He was blowing bubbles out of a pipe and seemed to be happy with doing just that.

The seventh person was small teenage girl who looked to be about 9 and was wearing a small brown dress that looked old and ragged. She had green hair? And orange eyes? Her hair had an orange hairclip in it and it was cut short. She had a strange red cylinder on her back. She also had a very dark complexion.

The final person was a teenage boy with pale yellow hair, he had a tanned complexion, slightly darker than the seventh person. He was wearing sunglasses and had a Kumo headband around his head and also had four swords on his back.

When Naruto saw the people, he started to back away again and when he saw the girls he started to hyperventilate. They looked at him and started to walk closer and he backed away further.

 **"Naruto calm down"** , his Kaa-chan said, **"They won't hurt you, they are like you."** He started to calm down but he was terrified, he was scared of people in general but after what happened to him for all of those weeks he was absolutely terrified by women. This was understandable he had rarely had any nice human contact so meeting new people was hard for him.

"Err… hi." said the girl with green hair.

"Hi, I'm N-n-Naruto" he replied stuttering, not looking at her, his eyes going to the ground, ' _you are beneath normal people._ ' The woman had said, ' _don't even look at us!_ '. He flinched at the memory.

"I'm Fu, this is Garra, Yugito, Yagura, Roshi, Hana, Utakata and Killer B, and these are the bijuu." She indicated behind her to what he originally assumed were oddly shaped mountains.

"That's Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kukuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuki and of course, your bijuu, Kurama." Fu finished pointing to each bijuu before finally pointing to his Kaa-chan.

As his brain tried to process all of the new names, he looked around, the sheer size of the room he was in was baffling. "Where are we?" In his amazement, he lost his stutter for a moment.

 **"We are currently in the shared mindscape, more precisely we are at Kurama's end of the mindscape because your seal won't let you get into the proper mindscape."** Gyuki said.

"Ok, but how are you here?" He asked, finding it infinitely easier to talk to the giant animals than the humans, were they monsters, like him?

 **"We aren't; the mindscape connects our minds we are all where we fell asleep. So are you."** Kukuo answered.

 **"By the way,"** Isobu began, **"don't cross that line that separates us from Kurama and Naruto any of you. It was created by the Shinigami and can't be broken, if anyone from our side tries to cross they will be trapped in Naruto, if one of us bijuu were to do it, their Jinchuuriki would die due to losing their bijuu and Naruto could die due to the overload of chakra in his system. If one of you Jinchuuriki were to go across then your soul would be trapped inside Naruto's body and your body would die. Naruto, you and Kurama can't cross it as it directly affects you."**

"Ok." Replied all of the Jinchuuriki.

"Now that is out of the way hello kid, how are you?" asked Roshi.

"I-I-I'm fine." Replied Naruto, he was still scared even if he knew they wouldn't hurt him.

"Where are you from?" asked Fu.

"K-k-k-on-n-n-o-ha" the stutter got worse, fear flooded him, he looked at the ground again.

"Why are you stuttering?" Fu asked, her voice hinting the annoyance she felt, truthfully, she was nervous, the other bijuu had told them that there was another kid like her and the other Jinchuuriki, so when they managed to get him to the mindscape she was both happy and nervous. As she spoke she tried to hide her nerves with annoyance, "calm down will ya."

"I-I-I-I'm s-s-s-or-r-r-ry" Naruto felt his heart quicken, memories flooded his mind, how they disciplined him for even breathing loudly. Kurama felt his discomfort and nudged him gently with the tip of a mighty tail, reminding him of the comforting fox's presence. He looked up and smiled at his new mother, failing to hide the fear in his eyes.

"C'mon kid we won't bite." Said Yugito, smirking a little. None of the Jinchuuriki were aware of how harsh his life was only the bijuu knew as Kurama wisely kept it between them, the bijuu thought that they shouldn't know the absolute worst humanity had to offer.

Naruto's eyes were now wide, the dam broke and memories flooded to the forefront of his mind:

 _"Come on kid, we won't bite, but my friends might." 'Anko' said and then created a small fire dragon and it coiled around him before biting his arm, it was about a day into the torture session and Naruto hoped it would be over soon, he was in so much pain._

At this point Naruto had started hyperventilating again, he collapsed onto his back as he lived through the memories again, flashes of it were happening in front of him.

 **"Kit, KIT!"** shouted Kurama, taking Naruto in a tail. **"Damn it, kit it's ok, I'm here it's not real, calm down. Damn it I'm going to have to put you to a deep sleep, please be ok."** Kyuubi then put Naruto into a deep sleep and brought his conscious to his own mind.

 **"Why did you do that?"** Matatabi nearly screamed at the two girls.

"W-w-what, we didn't do that." Said Yugito, nervously, she didn't want to upset anyone, she was just trying to get him to open up.

"Yeah we didn't do anything." Fu shouted back, she was confused, why was he so scared? Jinchuuriki don't hurt their own, Kurama must have told him that.

 **"You fool, you could see he was uncomfortable and yet you continued, he has been through a hard time."** Chomei screamed.

"We all have; we all get treated badly just because he can't take I…" Fu began but was silenced when she felt the Killer Intent (KI) of eight bijuu focused on her.

 **"Fu, you have suffered a hard life but the pain you have felt pales compared to his,"** Chomei said.

 **"What that boy goes through is more than you could ever imagine."** Gyuki stated.

 **"His best day was more horrifying than any of you on your worst."** Saiken said grimly.

 **"Any of you would have gone insane in a matter of days if you lived his life."** Kukuo said sadly.

 **"None of you have any right to judge him on anything especially after-"** Shukaku began.

 **"No, it is not our place to speak of that."** Isobu said. **"But know this none if you can begin to comprehend his pain."**

"B-b-but it couldn't have b-" Yugito was stopped by all of the bijuu growling.

 **"Child don't finish that sentence."** Son Goku said, **"You each are lucky in some ways, for all of you have some method of automatic defence or warning for danger. He did not due to part of the seal now imagine if you were the same. You would all most likely be dead."**

All of the Jinchuuriki were shocked by this, it was true all of them would be dead due to the assassins and occasional drunken villager when they were younger, to not have it would be a death sentence.

"H-h-ow is he still alive?" Yagura asked. Without her coral to protect her she wouldn't have lived past her 4th birthday.

 **"Kurama is the best at healing out of all of us, fixing his body is easy."** Kukuo answered.

 **"But that isn't the worst part, the loneliness has lead him to try to kill himself too many times to count."** Matatabi said sadly.

"loneliness but-but he had Kurama." Fu said, feeling regret for her actions, even if she hadn't known at the time.

 **"No, he did not. The seal that was used prevented all contact unless something extreme enough happened, the first time he and Kurama talked was today. Can you imagine that, no one to comfort you absolutely no one?"**

"I di-dn't mean to." Fu sobbed, Chomei had been the one to raise Fu, the other Jinchuuriki were her only form of human interaction. Fu loved Chomei for that, but now the bijuu was angry, they all were, at her. She never meant to hurt anyone.

Yugito felt guilty, she didn't want to hurt him, she just wanted to meet the young Jinchuuriki, she wasn't good with new people. That was mostly due to the underwhelming amount of people she had ever had to meet, and then only a few of them she actually trusted, to her this was bringing in someone she didn't know to her circle of trust, which was a terrifying prospect to her.

As the two of them were shouted at by the bijuu, the other Jinchuuriki watched, the older ones, Roshi, B, Hana and to some extent Yagura felt sad. They knew that there were worse fates than their own. Utakata silently agreed with Fu's argument, how was his life any worse than the others, why was he so special. Garra, however was terrified, he had never felt his Kaa-chan so angry before, and why did the other one leave? He didn't even get to talk to him.

(Artemis Camp)

Artemis had just found a new hunter, she like all of the others who joined her group started to hate men. The goddess then thought back to her baby boy and was once again worried, what was he like, was he like all of the other men? No! he was her son; he would be different. Then she thought back and wondered how his life was, no one would know he was a Jinchuuriki. Hiruzen knew better than to say anything, he knew how they were treated. He was probably enjoying himself maybe he was in the academy, no if he's seven now it would be next year he would join. Yugao was his Godmother she would be raising him; she would probably tell him stories of her life. Oh, how she couldn't wait to surprise him by coming back for him, she only told the bijuu of her Goddess status so no one could tell him. She knew full well which seal her husband used, he wouldn't be able to talk to any of the bijuu or other Jinchuuriki but he would have a good life, like she did as Kushina.

She thought back to the other Jinchuuriki and felt sorry for them, she knew none of them resented her for her life, but she could tell they were jealous sometimes. It was only a matter of years until they could meet again. Eight years and he would be in her arms again.

 **A/N: I added in more of Yugao's search for Naruto, I don't know I just thought it was a bit brief the first time around, so I wanted to make it a bit longer.**


	3. Chapter 3

(Mind space)

When Naruto woke up he found himself in the fur of his Kaa-chan again, he remembered being introduced to his new friends and then nothing. Maybe they had to go he couldn't quite remember.

 **"Naruto-kun are you ok?"** asked his mother, she had curled around him protectively keeping him warm.

"Yes Kaa-chan, what happened?"

 **"You were tired so I brought you here to sleep."** The kyuubi lied she didn't want him to be scared again.

"Ok kaa-chan, can I talk to my friends again I didn't get much time?" he asked.

 **"Of course, you can, though not everyone will be there, some of them might have woken up. Or in Garra's case he might have to leave his meditative state."**

"What's that?"

 **"Garra can't sleep, so to go into the mindscape he meditates."**

"Ok are we there yet?"

 **"Yes."**

Only Fu, Yugito and Yagura were there along with all of the bijuu.

"Hello." Naruto said.

They all said their hellos but the three girls looked slightly nervous and uncomfortable. Naruto didn't notice this as he was apparently very interested in his feet at the moment. He eventually forced himself to look up at them, he was trying to face his fears because his kaa-chan promised that they wouldn't hurt him.

"S-so," he mentally winced at his stutter and thought about what to ask, he then tried not to stutter, "where are y-you from?" He finally asked.

"I'm from Kumo," at his confused look Yugito elaborated, "the village hidden in the clouds."

"You live on a cloud?! How fluffy are they?" Naruto asked, the absurdity of that statement temporarily making him forget his fears, he immediately looked down to the ground straight after saying it.

Yugito giggled and the other two smirked, "I don't live on a cloud, Naruto I live on a mountain my house is near the top though, I am above some of the clouds. And clouds aren't very fluffy," she rubbed her arm awkwardly and scowled, "they're wet, and not fun to bounce on, in fact you can't, you just fall through them. Stupid B." She muttered the last bit.

"Oh, sorry," Naruto felt stupid, he was worried they would hate him for being stupid he looked down at the ground sadly.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," Yugito said kindly, he looked up at her, "it is a silly name." She said with a smile.

"Yeah." Naruto agreed, smiling slightly.

"I live in the village hidden in the mist," Yagura said, bringing herself into the conversation.

"You mean everyone in your village misses each other?" Naruto asked.

"No," Yagura giggled, "mist, it's like… like clouds, but on the ground." She explained, "there's a lot of water as well."

"Oh, sorry-" Naruto began, looking down again, but Yagura interrupted him.

"Don't apologise, you did nothing wrong," she smiled at him, he slowly reciprocated it.

"Well…" Fu said, "I live in the village hidden in the waterfalls, it's got lots of waterfalls." Fu finished.

"Cool," Naruto said, he scrunched his face up in concentration, "are waterfalls what happens when the sky goes grey and the clouds come out, and the sky spits down?"

"No, that's rain, waterfalls are like cliffs with huge amounts of water falling down them." Fu said.

"Oh," Naruto felt really stupid now, he looked down again, "well, I'm from the village hidden in the leaves, there are a lot of trees there, so I guess that's why it's called that."

"There are lots of trees where I live too," Fu said, "in fact I live in one."

"Really?" Naruto asked, "are you one of the green tree people then, 'because you don't look very green."

"Green tree people?" Yugito asked.

"Yeah, they live in the tree's, they don't stay around too long, though they're always giggling." Naruto said.

 **"Tree nymphs,"** Kurama said, **"they normally stay away from humans, they only show themselves to sage's and animals."** There was no mention of the fact that they only started appearing after the gods started showing up to their 'vacation world' who knows how long ago. They only stopped when they realised the affects it was having on the two worlds.

"Oh, so are you a tree nymph?" Naruto asked.

"No, I just live in a hole in the tree." Fu said, pretty confused to what nymphs were. "I'm sorry, but I think it is time for us to go. I should be waking up soon."

"Oh," Naruto said, like a kicked puppy, making Fu not want to leave.

 **"Now, don't worry Naruto-kun,"** Kurama said, **"there'll be plenty to keep you occupied until they come back, we have to teach you a few things."**

"Like what?" Naruto asked.

 **"We need to get you to the same level as your classmates will be, so they don't have an advantage over you, it's not because you're stupid or anything, it's because you haven't had an education."** Matatabi said, trying not to hurt his feeling.

"Okay." Naruto said, "so what will I be learning?"

 **"Just the basics, how to read and write, and other things that other children would know."** Chomei said.

"Okay." The other Jinchuuriki all woke up and left him to his education.

The next night he met up with all of them and they talked again this time he wasn't as afraid of them, they were like him and they couldn't hurt him. His kaa-chan said they wouldn't hurt him either but he had learned long ago that it only mattered if the person could hurt you as eventually they will hurt you. The only people who didn't were the nice ramen people and the old man.

He hit it off with Garra immediately, especially when he saw the cool sand that he could use. Then they all tried to play a game but they couldn't think of one that Naruto could play due to the seal. Naruto was getting sad thinking his new friends would leave that is until something landed beside him. It was Hana's hat, looking up he saw her hair, it was rust red like her armour and short, she kept her face mask on so he couldn't see her face.

"Well, are you going to throw it back?" Hana asked, now that he looked at it, the shape was quite similar to a Frisbee, now that he could play with them he was happy. This was the first time he got to play with anyone, he was happy, they played for a while until the others woke up. He then talked to the bijuu and got to know them a bit.

This was how his life played out for the next month, by day he would learn from the bijuu, by night he would play with the other Jinchuuriki. Eventually it came time for him to leave his coma and go back to the outside world, something he wasn't excited about.

As Naruto started to stir one of the guards stationed outside his door went to inform the Hokage that he would be waking soon. When Naruto woke up he saw a familiar old man on the edge of his bed "Jiji" he shouted lunging to give him a hug, the old man had a smile on his face at that. The boy was still the same, at least he hoped so.

"Hello Naruto, how are you?"

"I'm ok Jiji." He was his anchor, the person who'd been there for him from the start, even in the orphanage he had visited him, he trusted him more than the Ichiraku's.

"Naruto," the elderly Hokage said, breaking the hug, "after what's happened I'm going to put a few guards on you to try to help you, don't worry, these ones won't hurt you." He said with a grimace.

Naruto looked blankly at him, this wasn't the first time the Hokage had said he would be safe, the Hokage sighed before continuing.

"Cat, Snake, Bat." He called, and three ANBU appeared wearing masks, like their namesake. They all wore standard ANBU clothing. "These three will protect you and act as your caretakers, they will help get you get food. I can tell you haven't been eating well."

Naruto gulped before nodding, he glanced at the three women, he flinched, at least he wouldn't have to see them all the time.

(Time skip)

Naruto had been released from the hospital, he was back on the streets of Konoha and he was terrified. He vaguely knew that the ANBU were with him, one each side and one behind, he couldn't be bothered remembering which was which, though he guessed he would figure it out at a glance.

At the moment though, the names of his 'guards' was the least of his concern, the moment he was seen people silenced themselves. Children were led away, everyone was staring, those damned eyes, so much hate, so much anger. A wave of anxiety washed over him, a memory of… then, when he woke up there, the first thing he saw was darkness, when the lights turned on the first thing he noticed was the glares.

Well, that was a lie, the very first thing he noticed was the very loud drill in the hands of the red-haired woman. He shivered, the eyes though, the held so much hate, so much anger, so much promised pain, just like the sea of eyes glaring at him now. There were so many, it was like looking at the stars, but more intense, angrier, scarier.

Naruto knew what happened now, a bottle or a rock, or occasionally a kunai, maybe even a stick, someone in the crowd would throw it, it would hit him. That would set off the crowd, they would chase him, all the while hurling more random objects, they would usually be worse than the first. In this line-up, there was guaranteed to be knives, butcher cleavers, steak knives, sometimes even butter knives.

Then they would-

That train of thought stopped suddenly, the first stone was thrown, literally, a rock about the size of his fist was headed in his direction, the world seemed to slow down. He stared at the rock, it was slowly nearing him, at the moment he remembered a jock Roshi had told him when they were playing with the frisbee:

 _They had only been playing for ten minutes at most, they had been quiet for the most part, not an awkward silence, a comfortable one. It was broken when Roshi spoke up, Fu had just thrown the disk and it was going straight for the aforementioned Jinchuuriki's chest, he smirked._

 _"As she threw the Frisbee I began to think," he narrated, "and I thought 'I wonder why the Frisbee gets bigger when it gets closer' and then," the hat bounced off his chest and he looked up, a stupid grin decorating his face, "it hit me."_

Naruto couldn't help the small twitch that may have been a smile tugging at his lips, the phantom twitch disappeared as he was brought back to reality with the stone headed straight for him. He got ready for it to make contact, he knew what would happen after, what always happened… he flinched away, silently hoping that something different would happen this time, but he knew it wouldn't…

SMACK

Naruto looked up, the rock hadn't hit him, he glanced to where he last knew the rock was, now there was a hand, in front of the rocks path. This hand however wasn't floating in mid-air, not having randomly materialised into existence randomly, which Naruto believed was the most likely conclusion. Instead, this particular hand was attached to an arm, which was attached to a torso, which happened to belong to a particularly annoyed looking ANBU.

This particular ANBU had a mask that looked like a cobra poised to strike with its fangs at the ready, the hand in which the rock resided slowly clenched, a soft crunching sound was coming from it. It was practically amplified, being the only sound in the street that the Jinchuuriki currently resided in. All the other occupants were transfixed on the rock, like Naruto was, the ANBU Naruto now remembered being called Snake was clenching her gloved fist slowly adding pressure, until eventually.

CRACK

Shards of rack exploded from her hand, a small cloud of dust from the rock being the only reminder that a rock had been there a few seconds ago. The ANBU just looked at her hand, then glanced slowly around the civilians, who upon being under her scrutinizing gaze stepped back. There was a minute's silence, like everyone was silently mourning the rock, did it have a family? If so they must miss it now, Naruto decided that he didn't care, he didn't like that rock, he decided to name him Orion, for some reason that name was the first listed in his brain under the file name 'assholes' even if he never met anyone called Orion. Now that he had met an Orion, he instantly disliked the him, that rock was going to hit him, good thing he's dead. That got Naruto thinking, would the family make a grave for him, would he get a tombstone? No that could be like his mother or something.

The crowd stopped their mourning and started muttering, he picked up a few shreds of conversation:

"Demon whore."

"Monster lover."

"Kyuubi-"

That last one decided not to finish his insult, though that may have had something to do with the twenty-four-inch blade currently imbedded in his throat. So, unless his insult was "Kyuubi glug-glug-cough-gasp-blegh," in which case he really needed to work on his insults.

Again, the crowd went silent, this time staring at the cat masked ANBU who quickly removed the now very bloody blade from the freshly furnished emergency exit to his trachea. Hmm, looks like there was an emergency, or the blood just wanted to get away from the shit that was coming out of the regular exit. The ANBU then quickly wiped the blood on a cloth and re-sheathing it on her back, and walking back to her place to the left of Naruto.

"You can't do that!" Someone finally yelled from the crowd, "that's against the law!"

"That man broke another law punishable by death," The final ANBU spoke, "he his dead and has now fulfilled his punishment, you are welcome to ask for a retrial, but I don't think there is much of a case, or defendant." She said. Maybe the ANBU took their names too seriously, Snake struck like a cobra, Cat pounced… like a cat, Bat may be using some supersonic frequency to talk the civilians dow-nevermind.

As Naruto was thinking that the man said something that got him as the assistant for a magic show, with Bat. Bat was showing the crowd the good old' pull a coin from behind the ear trick, only she was using a knife instead of a coin, and instead of pulling it out from behind his ear she was taking out of his chest. She didn't seem to be pretty good at this trick, I mean he and by the looks of it the crowd had seen her put it in said chest, so it kind of ruined the mystery.

"That law will be enforced by us from now on, so no breaking it." Bat said. Before going to her original position at Naruto's back, the crowd split down the middle as Naruto began walking again, no one said anything.

On the way to his apartment Naruto faced three more situations like that, and every time he expected to get hit, one of the ANBU stopped the assailant. Naruto stopped at his door, the usual graffiti was absent, it looked almost clean?

"Umm, we're sorry." Snake said, he turned a questioning gaze to her, "we came here to… scope out your home, make sure that we knew were everything was, we didn't change much, just the mattress, but we cleaned up the rubbish fixed the broken furniture, got the water and electricity working again and cleaned up the… stains." She finished, sheepishly scratching her head.

"Why are you being so nice?" Naruto asked, "w-why are you protecting me? Why do you act like you care?" He nearly broke down, was this a trick? Some elaborate hoax?

"We do care." Cat said, her voice sounded sincere, "we are here to help you, to take care of you. No matter what though we still care about you." The others nodded in agreement.

"I…" A hopeful gleam appeared in his eyes but was clouded over by distrust, "whatever." He then entered his apartment, looking around at all the changes, it was like a new place. The floor looked brand new, he didn't even know that it was originally that colour, he just remembered the brown-red colour it had become. As he entered his bedroom he saw there was a new bed waiting for him, much better than his old one.

"Do you like it?" Snake asked, nervously.

Naruto looked and saw that they had followed him in and were standing at the doorway, "yeah," he quietly murmured, "thank you." He said, he really hoped this wasn't a trick, if it was it would be a cruel one.

(Time skip)

Naruto, now ten was going to try to be a ninja early, after years his fears had lessoned due to his Jinchuuriki family, and ANBU guards who he eventually warmed to. His fear of women hadn't gone away though, his family had been trying to help him on that front. They were all helping get over his problem to the point where he would be able to talk to girls, and he was making progress, he didn't freeze up as much anymore in public.

The attacks had all but stopped after finding out his guards were authorised to use lethal force, he still hadn't learned any of his guard's names or seen them without their masks on. He was still very uncomfortable in public and usually tried to avoid it when possible and it was made easier by the fact that most of the parents told their children to stay away from him and everyone else already put effort into doing just that. He was fine with this, he had his Jinchuuriki brothers and sisters to be friends with speaking of which they had all managed to become ninjas except him and Garra. That was why he wanted to be one, to prove he was strong like them.

So, after a year of staying at the back, avoiding everyone, especially the girls, trying to make sense of the floating kanji and just generally being a shadow, he had been allowed to try for the final exam.

He had just done the theory exam and thought he did ok, well considering the ink didn't like staying on the paper he thought it was ok. Now all that was left was the practical exam, he had to perform bunshins. Dammit, for the life of him he couldn't understand why he couldn't do it, Roshi said maybe he was using too much Chakra so he put the smallest amount he could. Still nothing, he failed the exam. There was always next year the chunin giving the exam said giving him a sneer.

He left and went home to enter the mindscape. He wanted to talk to his family, they managed to cheer him up after all there was always next year.

(A year later)

Again, he failed, another sneer. This year instead of listening to the boring theory he started pranking random people, and people who deserved it. Kaa-chan approved, said it was good to have a hobby. The ANBU silently approved too, they didn't talk much but when they did, they were nice. The instructors didn't realise it was him, no one did, he was so quiet they just didn't notice him, it was better than being picked on, so he did nothing to change it.

Unfortunately, one of the instructors seemed to have caught on that it was him, they hadn't confronted him yet, and there was no evidence. But beneath the layer of paint and glitter he caught his eye, and gave him a knowing glare, maybe next year Iruka would be prepared for his pranks.

As he walked home he wondered why he couldn't do one simple jutsu, even the kid who didn't have a working chakra system passed because he was very good at taijutsu, why couldn't he pass. Ah well maybe next year.

(Next year)

He had failed again and he knew this was his last chance, his Kaa-chan was trying to keep him happy but it wasn't working, he was acting so depressed about it that he didn't notice someone behind him until they spoke up.

"Hey Naruto, don't be so sad." Mizuki said grinning slightly at his plan.

"But Misuki-sensei that was my last chance." Naruto said, Mizuki wasn't the worst, he ignored him most of the time, but for now he just looked like he was consoling a sad student.

"Well…" Mizuki grinned.

(Later that night)

Naruto was running as fast as he could, he had the scroll of seals on his back, he just needed to make it to the shack Misuki-sensei told him about.

 **"Naruto, something about this doesn't seem right."** Kyuubi said.

'It'll be fine kaa-chan, Misuki told me about it it's just a test, all I have to do is learn a jutsu from the scroll and then give it to Misuki.' Naruto thought back.

He made it to the shack with plenty of time and began looking for a jutsu to learn. Then he had a good idea, what if the key to his seal was on the scroll. He relayed this idea to his Kaa-chan and she told him to look for it. As he went through the scroll he saw some very complicated jutsu that he knew he had no chance at learning the only one he thought he had a shot at was the shadow clone jutsu. He finally came to a storage seal that said: 'reaper death seal key'. He unsealed it and saw that a piece of paper came out of the seal, he read the instructions which told him to put it on his arm and it would print the seal on him.

He put the paper on his arms and pressed down, it was like a temporary tattoo, the marking went from elbow to the palm of his hand, and looked like little boxes with a circle at the end. He looked at it but didn't open the seal, he would save it for later when he knew Misuki-sensei wouldn't see him.

"Well now that is sorted we should get to work learning this jutsu…"

(In the Hokage's office)

In the Hokage's office there was complete chaos, everyone was panicking as they found out that the scroll of seals was gone, when they found out Naruto was the perpetrator things got more chaotic as many were complaining that the demon got too powerful. The Hokage stopped all the chaos with a glance.

"Ok Cat, Snake, Bat what happened?"

"We don't know, he talked to Mizuki, went home and then disappeared."

"What do you mean disappeared?"

"When I went in to give him groceries for his dinner he just wasn't there. We found a hole under his bed that led to another apartment and since no one else lives in his apartment block no one could tell us where to go."

"I'll try to locate him with my crystal ball."

The old Hokage used the ball it brought up an image of Naruto trying the shadow clone jutsu, after seeing this the Hokage and Naruto's ANBU paled as this was a jutsu that would kill a normal academy student. When Naruto completed it successfully everyone in the room was shocked.

"Cat, Bat, Snake go and find him before he finds anything else on that scroll, most of the jutsu are suicide jutsu, there is also, the key to his seal." At this everyone paled even more than his student Orochimaru, they ANBU ran out to get him as quickly as possible fearing for the life of their young charge. While they did this the Hokage sighed, if Naruto accidently opened the seal there was no telling what could happen.

(Back with Naruto)

"I did it!" He exclaimed, after a couple of tries he managed to get the shadow clones right. That meant he could be genin and a ninja, he would be like his brothers and sisters.

 **"Well done Naru-chan"** Kurama said happily.

'Thanks, Kaa-chan'

"Naruto!" he heard, he turned and saw the three ANBU who guarded him.

"Hey Cat-nee-chan, Snake-nee-chan, Bat-nee-chan. What are you doing here? Did you get here to tell me if I passed the test or not." He started to trust them, even if they were normally quiet they protected him, they helped him, he might not know what they looked like but they were family. They took care of him, fed him and protected him, he knew that Kaa-chan tried but the fox wouldn't be able to care for him in the same way.

"Test?" Snake asked incredulously.

"Yeah, the test to let me pass as a Genin, Mizuki-sensei said if I did this I could become a ninja." Naruto replied happily, "So did I pass?"

"Naruto what are y-" Bat began but stopped when she heard the sound of shuriken coming at her. They all jumped away as the shuriken impacted where they once stood, they looked to for the perpetrator only to see to their horror Mizuki holding a kunai to Naruto's throat.

"Ok now stay back or I will finally shut this brat up. Permanently." Mizuki said.

"Mizuki-sensei what are you-" Naruto began only to be stopped be Mizuki hitting him on the head with the butt of his kunai. The three women grunted at that.

"Shut up demon!" Mizuki began, "do you have any idea how hard it was pretending to be nice to you? No, I guess you don't but I'm sure your guards do." He said, the three girls flinched slightly.

"Mizuki, put down Naruto, you're under arrest." Bat said.

Mizuki laughed at that, "Oh I'll put him down, after I tell him exactly what he is."

The ANBU looked shocked at that, "Don't, that's forbidden." Cat shouted out. She walked forward but Misuki brought the kunai closer to Naruto's throat.

"What are you talking about? What am I?" Naruto asked.

"Before that," Mizuki began, "remove your masks, I need to know who it is that has been protecting this beast."

"No-" Cat began but was interrupted by Mizuki, "You will do it or I'll bleed him dry." Mizuki said punctuating this statement by stabbing Naruto in the shoulder causing him to flinch slightly, he had faced much worse pain so this wasn't bad for him but it still hurt.

"Fine, just don't hurt him." Snake said, and brought her hand to her mask which was followed by Cat and Bat. "We're sorry Naruto."

"What are you talking about? You-" He stopped when he saw who was beneath the masks, he remembered them from that night he remembered that they tortured him along with all of the other kunoichi in the village.

His eyes widened and his heart was beating like crazy, did they plan this from the start, why did they guard him, was the old man in on this. No, it's all some cruel trick!

"Ha-ha so I was right, when you three disappeared. To think you were the guards, ironic isn't it Naruto." Mizuki said smugly, he glanced at the Jinchuuriki and smirked at his shocked expression. "Naruto, oh, I think he remembers you. Who would have thought he would be effected like this?"

"Mizuki, how do you know about that?" Kurenai asked.

"Oh, no one ever found out. I was the one who's idea it was to kidnap him and torture him, I didn't think it would work but it did better than that, but wow you all went all out. I didn't expect any of you to actually rape a small child, tut, tut, tut."

They all flinched at this.

"We didn't-" Anko began but was stopped by Naruto who seemed to get out of his fear induced trance to ask one question. "Why?"

Again, they flinched except Mizuki who's smirk grew in size. "Well now that is the question, isn't it? Do you want an answer? Of course, you do you see-"

"Don't do it Mizuki you-" Anko was silenced by Naruto when he screamed, "SHUT THE FUCK UP! Hurry up and tell me!"

"Very good Naruto why with a little-" Mizuki began.

"Quiet, hurry up and tell me." Naruto interrupted again.

"Fine, on October 10th twelve years ago the kyuubi attacked, the Yondaime couldn't kill it so he sealed it into a young baby. That monster lives inside you Naruto."

Naruto whispered something too quiet for anyone to hear. "What was that Naruto?" Mizuki said.

"I said, don't call Kaa-chan **a monster!** " He screamed and then turned to look Mizuki in the eye, his usual blue eyes became red and glowed ominously. Mizuki let go of him as he felt his hands begin to burn, he jumped back.

"Kaa-chan?" whispered Anko, as she said this both Kurenai and Yugao came to the same horrifying conclusion, the kyuubi had been influencing Naruto. Back in the Hokage tower the Third thought the same.

Naruto then ripped his jacket off exposing his horribly scared body, the kyuubi's chakra showed all of his previously healed scars, it also showed the seal on his stomach and the newly formed seal on his arm, the key. His body looked like the canvas of some demented artists masterpiece, blade marks crisscrossed his chest, kanji formed words across him, the occasional name some villager carved into him to force him to remind of his 'crimes'. His back from his right shoulder blade to his left hip had an enormous burn mark, the flesh melted grotesquely. His face wasn't as bad, but white scars crisscrossed, his throat had scars painting a ghastly smile.

At this sight, the Hokage was terrified as he knew Naruto had access to the key and could open the seal at any time at the same time the women became horrified seeing the scars he had. Naruto then brought his arm with the key to the seal on his stomach.

"Naruto please calm down." Anko said, Naruto's red eyes then turned to her and she backed away from the gaze. Suddenly he was right in front of her. "Please Naruto, just stop." She begged.

 ** _"Why should I"_** He said quietly his voice harsh and angry. **_"How many times? How many times did I ask for you to stop? Well why should I stop?"_**

"I'm sorry Naruto, it wasn't us, there were some ninja they tricked you, they used Genjutsu on you, there were only a couple of ninjas there, most of them don't hate you."

"Kaa-chan says you're not lying"

Anko was crying by now and Naruto's eyes were going back to normal he started to calm down. Eventually all of the kyuubi's chakra went away and Naruto's scars disappeared. Eventually he just stood there in front of Anko, he turned away and looked around for Mizuki, the others noticed that he had disappeared in the chaos and were looking for him as well.

Yugao heard the whoosh of a fuma shuriken and turned to see it was heading towards Naruto, who hadn't heard it and was unprepared. She jumped in front of it and faced Naruto who turned to see her at the last minute. His eyes widened as he realised he would have died if not for Yugao. He looked behind her to see Mizuki.

He caught Yugao before she fell and saw the oversized shuriken in her back, he saw Mizuki coming to finish the job only for Kurenai to block him and strike him in the throat with a kunai. He collapsed in a heap and the battle was over. He was only a chunin and Kurenai was a jonin. Naruto was still holding on to Yugao, Kurenai then said, "Naruto could you take the scroll back to the hokage please?"

"Is Cat going to be ok?" he asked with slight worry in his voice.

"Yes, I'll take her to the hospital, Anko can you take care of this trash?" a nod was Kurenai's answer.

"We need to talk." He said before grabbing the scroll and taking it to the Hokage.

'We know' were the thoughts of the conscious members of the three-man team.

(At the Hokage tower)

 **"That was foolish Naruto"** Kyuubi said.

'I know; I just couldn't stand him saying you were a monster kaa-chan.' Naruto replied.

 **"What's done is done."**

With that he entered the Hokage's office to see the third looking sternly at him.

"Naruto, how long have you known of the kyuubi?" The Hokage asked.

"Since that… incident, we met in the mindscape when I entered the coma."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't you?" Was his reply, the old man didn't speak for a second.

"Naruto, I didn't tell you to try to give you a chance at a normal childhood."

"A normal childhood, A NORMAL CHILDHOOD!" Naruto shouted.

"Naruto, I just-"

"You what you thought it was easier to be beaten and not be given a reason, to be tortured for days, weeks, months on end?"

"Naruto plea- "

"No. Goodbye Hokage-sama."

"Naruto," he sighed, before reaching into his desk, "here take this. You learned the shadow clone jutsu you are now a Genin." The third said throwing a headband to Naruto who caught it before placing it on his forehead. He then walked away leaving the old Hokage to his thoughts.

(In the mindscape, later)

"Ok so now that we have the key we can enter the shared mindscape proper."

 **"Yes, so far, we have been staying inside my mind and the others have been just outside, now we can all go to the actual shared mindscape, you can now have contact with your brothers and sisters now Naru-chan"**

"Ok I think now's as good a time as any." With that Naruto put his hand to his stomach just over the seal and twisted, this caused the spiral lock to open and the seal on his stomach fully blacked out. The giant gates finally opened and seemingly disappeared. Kurama then gently lifted Naruto up and carried him. Naruto was carried through the archway and they entered the giant forest. Kurama had told Naruto that the bijuu's part of the mindscape was shaped by the bijuu themselves to fit their desire.

As they reached the end Naruto noticed that the line from the seal was gone, that meant that the key had definitely worked. Waiting there were all of the other bijuu but none of the Jinchuuriki were there yet which meant that they were likely not asleep yet or in Garra's case hadn't entered the mindscape.

 **"So, your seal has been opened then?"** Matatabi asked.

"Yes, I managed to get the scroll of seals, I learned an awesome kinjutsu called multi shadow clone jutsu, I fought a traitor and I-"

 **"What?! Naru-chan are you ok are you hurt?"** Chomei asked and the other bijuu were looking worried for him.

"I'm fine don't worry, I'm too awesome to be hurt." Naruto said.

They made it to the centre of the mindscape which turned out to be a grassy plane that had a circle which from a bird's eye view would resemble a clock face with only nine numbers on the face. All of the numbers were made of what looked like ink. The bijuu all stood on the number that corresponds with their tail number with him still on Kurama's head. His kaa-chan lowered him so that he was in the middle of the circle.

"Naruto? How'd you get here did you open the seal?" Naruto turned to see Yugito coming from what looked to be Matatabi's side, she came over to him and wrapped him in a hug. It was the first time another human had actually given him a hug so he froze for a bit before returning the hug gently.

"Yeah, I got the key from the forbidden scroll that I may have accidently stolen then learned one of the jutsus and gotten involved in fighting a traitor to my village before becoming a ninja you know the normal way to earn my headband." Yugito's jaw was scraping the floor at this point.

As she was about to ask about the story in more detail a green blur tackled Naruto to the ground when the blur of destruction stopped moving Naruto recognised the blur to be Fu, she was happy to be finally able to hug her 'little-brother' as Garra's sand stopped her from being 'overly affectionate'. So now that she was able to act like a 'proper big sister should' she was never going to let go, when Yugito started struggling she was going to- wait Yugito? She looked to her right to see Naruto smiling at her before grabbing into a big hug that she couldn't escape.

"But-what-how-when-what?"

"Substitution." Was his reply.

"Oh, oh come her you, I can't believe you tricked me like that, but since this is a big moment for all of us." She said when he let go only to be brought into another hug.

Eventually all of the other Jinchuuriki showed up and were shocked by Naruto's newfound freedom from the seal. Naruto then told the whole story of what happened to him to be able to get to the mindscape and how he earned his headband. Needless to say, everyone, especially Garra who passed his exam a week ago, was impressed, he made it to the point to where they removed their masks he stopped.

"I… the ANBU took off their masks and-one of them was involved in a couple of the mobs when I was younger but only a handful of times, she just told them where I was, I sometimes saw here watching the beatings and doing nothing to help."

At the casual mention of beatings all of the Jinchuuriki got angry that their brother suffered like that but he told them that these ANBU stopped most of the attacks after that and the ones that they didn't were rare and only resulted in minor injuries, that stopped as soon as he was able to stop the drunken villagers from attacking him by himself but even then, they still helped him and treated him like a second family. To hear that one of the 'good humans' was involved in his abuse made them angry to hear she did nothing on other occasions just broke their hearts.

"The three of them… Do you remember when I first came here and I was scared and stuttering?"

After a nod from the Jinchuuriki and a wince from both Fu and Yugito for their part in his panic attack the first time they met.

"The only way for me to access my mindscape was to either come looking for chakra specifically from kaa-chan or to be in so much pain that my body would go into a coma."

At the shocked look on their faces and the gradual look of fear coming from them like they knew they didn't want to know what happened. The bijuu all looked saddened in fact Kukuo, Matatabi, Kurama and Chomei looked close to tears at what they knew was coming.

"I came using the second option, there was an incident just after my seventh birthday. I tried to kill myself, which apparently didn't work, again."

The other Jinchuuriki had horrified looks on their faces at the thought of the usually confident Naruto trying to kill himself. The casual mention of it made it even worse, he talked like it was something unimportant. "B-b-b-but why?" Yugito asked, "and what do you mean again?" Fu finished.

"Well, I had no one except the old man and he wasn't around much, everyone else tortured me day in day out so I decided to end it, but that was what? 8 years ago, so-"

"Wait 8 years ago you were 4!" Yagura said shocked, hoping one of them was wrong about his age.

"I know, contrary to popular belief I can do basic maths."

"B-b-but" Yagura began again.

"And what I mean by again, well it kind of became a weekly thing I did," He began ignoring the horrified gasps from all of his Jinchuuriki brethren, "I also did it when I wanted to go to sleep and avoid the nightmares, I just cut myself till I bled out and had a dreamless sleep." The other Jinchuuriki were completely white and couldn't speak due to the shock, none of them had it bad enough that they ever wanted to kill themselves and certainly none of them ever tried it.

"So, I plunged the knife into my chest expecting to wake up in the same place with the knife probably lying on the other side of the room. But I didn't, I woke up it was dark, I was nailed to a piece of wood. At the start, there was only one of them but then she brought me to a warehouse where everyone else was, I guess she wanted to be my first."

By now, most of the Jinchuuriki were confused, the were still slightly naïve to this sort of thing, the only ones who could guess were Roshi, whose eyes widened whilst silently begging his suspicion to be false; Hana, who was begging herself to be wrong and Bee, who just felt even more horrified.

"First what?" Yagura asked, her calm voice masking the angry sea of emotion beneath the surface.

"She-she raped me." He said quietly, but all of them heard him.

Finally, the limit for most of them came, Garra, Fu and Yugito threw up, Utakata retched and was close to joining the others, Yagura paled and sat down and sobbed quietly, Hana froze and just stared silent tears coming from her eyes, Bee collapsed on his back and just stared blankly and as for Roshi, he walked over to Naruto who had tears from the memory and gave him a hug tears coming down his eyes. The bijuu stared on the sadness evident in their eyes.

After everyone calmed down he continued, "After that, I collapsed, I woke up in a warehouse and they tortured me, they took it in turns, nearly everyone in that room raped me at least once. They kept me awake with drugs and pain… for three weeks straight." He whispered the last part out and watched as they all cried for him.

"So that is why, why you were so scared, because you thought we would do the same?" said Hana.

"Yes" was his reply.

"We're so sorry." Fu and Yugito said through sobs.

"It's not your fault, you didn't know, and I wouldn't have blamed you anyway. But because off that, I get scared around girls, I avoid them when I can, but I'm getting better." He said, trying to calm down his siblings.

"The ANBU who I told you about, how they helped me how they treat me normal. They were there, they helped them, b-but Snake said they weren't, she said it was a genjutsu used to try to make me fear women."

And so, he finished his story. They spent the rest of the night chatting away and trying to cheer each other up.

 **A/N: I decided to add in more interaction with the other Jinchuuriki, and also the scene with the mob, I really enjoyed writing it, hope you enjoy it.**


	4. Chapter 4

(Team selection)

Naruto didn't hear from 'his' ANBU in the past few days, Oj-Sarutobi came to him and told him that they had left the ANBU with the exception of Yugao who stayed in the ANBU. He was told that they would no longer be looking after him, he would have to take care of himself.

He went to the team selection and tried to avoid standing out, he wore a dark orange jacket with red highlights (Naruto's jumpsuit only a very dark orange, red is used basically where it's blue and it has yellow around the collar.) with trousers the same colour, after sleeping in his kaa-chans fur it was forever his favourite colour. On his feet were black ninja sandals.

He went to the academy for what he hoped was the last time, as he walked in the room he heard Kiba say something about him being dead last but he just ignored him and sat down next to Shino, he and Shino had a mutually respective relationship as neither really talked to anyone. Naruto did his pranks to test the limits of his stealth, last year he was right, Iruka had caught onto him and had spent the year trying to stop his pranks.

He was usually quiet in class mostly because of his fear of women, which though it had lessened considerably it was still quite scary for him especially with violent ones like Ino and Sakura. Speaking of, here they were storming in looking for a seat next to Sasuke who was brooding in the corner as usual. Before he could continue analysing the class someone roughly grabbed his shoulder, he turned to see Kiba.

"Listen when I'm speaking to you dead last." Kiba said angrily, "now why are you here? You failed the exam." Everyone started paying attention to the conversation, the exact opposite of what he wanted.

"I'm here because the Hokage had me tested, turns out I physically can't do bunshin's, I have too much chakra for it so I got a substitute for it."

"That's a lie, no way could you have more chakra than Sasuke-kun." Sakura said angrily, Naruto withheld his flinch.

"As a matter of fact, he does," said a voice from the doorway, everyone turned to see the Hokage and Iruka standing there, "as a matter of fact Naruto has more, raw chakra than even me." The Hokage finished, seeing the shocked looks on all of the children's faces.

"In fact, Naruto should have passed the exam years ago, there was a… mix up with his exam, Naruto's had some of the highest scores in the academy since the Yondaime, the only thing he failed was out of his control." At this Naruto got angry, and there were a range of reactions on the faces of the students, Sasuke looked irritated as this meant that someone was secretly doing better than him and the others looked shocked, confused or annoyed.

"Now as of now you are ninjas of the hidden leaf, so you shall be arranged into teams of three with one jonin sensei to train you to be stronger ninja."

The teams were then called out, Naruto ignored most of them until they got to "team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Inuzuka Kiba; team 8: Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto; team 10; Yamanaka Ino, Akamichi Choji and Nara Shikamaru."

Naruto looked at his teammates and gave a nod to each before listening to the other Genin either complain or be happy about their teams. The teams were slowly filtered out by their jonin sensei until only teams 7, 8 and 10 remained.

"Dobe," Sasuke said breaking the silence, "you said you had to learn a supplementary technique, what was it?" At this the others became very interested. They wanted to know what he could have possibly passed with.

"Why do you want to know, because you won't be able to use it, you have nowhere near the amount of chakra level to be able to pull it off. None of you do." Naruto replied causing Sasuke and Kiba to look at him annoyed.

"Anything you can do I can do better, Dobe." Sasuke snarled, his fists were tightening at his side. "Now show me." He demanded.

"Very well." With that Naruto crossed his fingers and a clone appeared beside him.

"I thought you couldn't do clones Dobe, can you only make one." Kiba said mockingly.

"No mutt, these are shadow clones they are real, they can fight like me." At this everyone was shocked. "I can make a couple of thousands of these before I feel the strain at all but someone with jonin level reserves would probably die of chakra exhaustion at around 10 or 15." At this everyone became even more shocked, how much chakra could he have.

"Show me how to do it." Sasuke said, if he had this he could defeat _him_ quicker.

"No, I just told you a jonin would be hard pressed to make a dozen, a chunin might be able to make two or three before collapsing, you might be able to make one but you would immediately collapse of chakra exhaustion, your reserves are high genin level, everyone else in this room has either mid or low genin reserves except Kiba, you and he are about equal."

"He is not-" Before Sasuke could finish the door opened and three jonin entered, well two entered the other was being dragged by the other two but he put up no resistance. Naruto was grateful, he hated being the centre of attention, with eight people staring him down, he was beyond uncomfortable.

"Hello, I'm Sarutobi Asuma, this is Hatake Kakashi and this is Yuhi Kurenai." Naruto looked at the three of them as they each surveyed the room, Kakashi's eye floating over each of them. Once his eye reached him it hardened, barely noticeable but Naruto picked up on it. When his and Kurenai's eyes met she flinched as his eyes hardened. Asuma smiled at him.

"Well then why don't we get our introductions out of the way, Hokage-sama told us that your teams in particular would be working close together for the next while, so we would introduce ourselves together." Asuma said, "I'm in charge of team 8, Kurenai's in charge of team 9 and Kakashi has team 7. For now, why don't you introduce yourselves."

"Um, sensei, could you go first." Sakura said after a short pause, "You know give us an example to show us what to say." Ino finished.

"Ok, I'm Sarutobi Asuma, I like smoking, shogi and go; I dislike many things and my dream for the future is to live a long happy life." Shikamaru perked up when he heard the likes. Well perking up for Shikamaru consisted of opening his eyes and not looking completely asleep.

"I am Hatake Kakashi. I have no intentions of telling you my likes and dislikes. As for my dream... I have few hobbies." At this everyone had similar thoughts, 'All we got was his name.'

"I am Kurenai Yuhi, I like genjutsu and a great many other things, my hobbies are learning new genjutsu and going out with my friends, my dislikes are perverts and…" she noticed the scowl on Naruto's face and trailed off, "my dream for the future is to make you the best ninjas you can be." 'And for you to forgive me Naruto' she thought.

"I'm Kiba and this is Akamaru, I like training, fighting and taking Akamaru for walks, I hate cats, my hobbies are training and taking Akamaru for walks my dream is to be the strongest ninja ever." This was punctuated with a bark form Akamaru.

"I'm Ino I like a certain someone, my dream for the future is to get married and have a family to that person my hobbies are working in my family's shop. I dislike Sakura." Ino said while Sakura grit her teeth.

"I'm Sakura I love a certain person, my dream for the future is to marry my love and raise a family with him. I hate Ino-pig!" Sakura said, Naruto looked round and saw a look of hurt and sadness appear on her face before a scowl appeared and she grit her teeth. Naruto wondered what the look was for, but it wasn't any of his business.

"I am Shino, I enjoy collecting insects and adding them to my hive, I dislike people who kill bugs for no reason and insecticides, my dream for the future is to discover and breed a new type of insect for my clan." Shino said emotionlessly. Naruto silently commented that he would get along with Fu and Chomei.

"I'm Choji, I like barbeque and chips, I also like hanging out with Shikamaru, I hate when people call me fat, my dream is to find a wife who can cook so that can make her happy." Choji said happily.

"I'm Shikamaru, I like clouds, shogi, go and sleep, I don't like being woken and when people shout at me. My dream is to have a completely normal life have an average wife and have two kids a boy and a girl, grow old and die happily." Shikamaru said then he went back to sleep.

"I'm Hinata I like flower pressing and a certain someone, I don't like being weak and my dream for the future is to be strong enough to make my father proud of me." Hinata said quietly.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, I don't have any likes our dislikes and I don't have a dream. I will make it happen, I will bring back my clan and kill a certain someone." Sasuke said as he brooded.

As they turned to look at him Naruto contemplated what he should tell them, "My names Naruto, I like training and learning new jutsu, I also like my kaa-chan and-" he was interrupted by Sakura "but I thought you were an orphan." He flinched and she apologised for being blunt. "I am but kaa-chans always been there for me, even when I didn't know." The jonin shared a look, it was clear that they had been briefed on who exactly his kaa-chan is. "Ok continue Naruto." Kurenai said.

"I also like my family and-" again he was interrupted this time by Shikamaru, "What family." Now he was curious, he didn't mean to be so blunt, but he never really talked to Naruto in fact no one had the closest was Shino, and they didn't really talk. "The one in my head." At this everyone just went silent for a minute staring at Naruto for a minute straight, all of them had similar thoughts of their sanity.

This silence was broken by Naruto laughing, everyone was now very scared of their teammate now, "I was only joking, calm down." He said between giggles, everyone visibly relaxed at that and Kiba and Ino joined him in his laughing. "No, I don't like them I love them, right now they're all I care about." Now everyone believed he was completely insane. Naruto then looked directly at Kakashi who was getting visibly nervous. "Kaa-chan says she doesn't like your eye; she says you better not use it too much; she also hopes the teme never gets his precious pink eye either." At this Kakashi started sweating, the other jonin were also looking uncomfortable. Sasuke looked angry at the blonde but then noticing the look on Kakashi's face stopped him.

"Anyway, my hobbies are talking to my family, gardening and learning new jutsu, oh also I really like ramen, how could I forget that. Oh, well my dislikes, well the three minutes it takes for ramen, I also loath rapists" Naruto's voice took a dark turn. "I hate them and also, there's an organisation that I completely despise and I will eventually hunt them down one by one and tear them to pieces. As for a goal, well, I already freed kaa-chan," at this all of the jonin paled considerably, "Oh don't worry kaa-chan won't hurt anyone, well unless they hurt me then she will, well I don't think what she would do is safe for you to hear. So, a goal, Hmm, aha, I got it, my goal is…" At this everyone leaned in to find out what the mysterious crazy blonde wanted to do.

"…my goal…"

"…is…"

"To find a goal!" and with that everyone face-planted, Naruto and Kurama were laughing and Naruto was now rolling on the floor. Of course, Naruto wouldn't tell them his real goal, the walls had ears, occasionally in a literal sense if Zetsu showed up.

"Now then, we just have to tell you about our test, the test to see if you have what it takes to be genin team 7 meet me at training ground 7 at 6 in the morning tomorrow. Bye." And before any of them could say anything he was gone.

"WHAT!" was the cry of Sakura and Ino.

"You have a Genin exam tomorrow at 6 as well team 10." And then Asuma left.

Kurenai sighed. "Team 8 same time in training ground 8. Naruto could we talk?" after an affirmative nod from Naruto she told the remaining Genin to go home and rest as they would need it for tomorrow. When the others had left she turned back to Naruto the bright boy from a few minutes ago was gone. He glared at her after a few seconds he spoke, "So what did you want to talk about _sensei._ " He said the word with venom.

"Naruto I'm sorry-" She began

"Oh, you're sorry, sorry for what? Sorry that you didn't finish me then? Sorry that your plan didn't work out as you were unmasked? What are you sorry about _sensei._ "

"I'm sorry for everything that happened to you, but we never hurt you at least not purposefully."

"You _hurt_ me, no, you didn't hurt me. I got hurt when I stubbed my toe the other day, I got hurt when I accidently cut myself with a kunai. No. You didn't hurt me, you tortured me, for three weeks' strait. And since when did you hate rapists you didn't seem to care back then. And then you plan didn't work out so you are going to try to gain my trust and then stab me when my back is turned. Well it's not the first time."

"What plan are you talking about?"

"The one where you pretend to by caring and helpful only to turn around and stab me when I trusted you. What was your plan Hmm? Maybe repeat what happened last time and finish what you started. Is that why you were scared to take off the mask?"

"No, Naruto we helped you to try to help you. We never planned on hurting you, we loved being your 'nee-chans' we didn't want that to stop that's why we didn't want to take off our masks."

"No, you're lying!"

 **"Kit, she's not lying, everything she's saying is true."**

"No, she's lying she has to be, kaa-chan stop lying. Why would you lie unless? No don't kaa-chan please don't hurt me." Naruto was terrified of his kaa-chan hurting him. He curled up in a ball to try to protect himself.

 **"Naru-chan I will never hurt you. I love you and I don't want to see you hurt ever again."**

"Then why are you lying, all the humans want to hurt me, she has to be lying."

 **"No. I'm sorry Naruto it's the truth she doesn't want to hurt you. It's not your fault, it's probably my fault for that I will always be sorry."**

"Why?" He asked Kurenai who had been watching one side of the previous conversation.

"We never wished to hurt you, we started looking after you because we felt sorry for you."

"Don't pity me." Naruto snarled

"I'm sorry."

"Why don't you hate me, when did you come to this great epiphany?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why? Why is it that everything has to be kept from me?"

"Fine. You're her son, my sensei's. She was a great woman her name was-"

"Uzumaki Kushina."

"What-but-that- how?" a shocked Kurenai asked.

"Kaa-chan told me. Did you know Kaa-chan was sealed in… well… kaa-chan?"

"No, why didn't she tell me?" Kurenai asked sadly.

"You know what happens when someone finds out you're a Jinchuuriki right? Cause I got a village full of examples out there if you didn't."

"Sorry."

"Is that why the other two became ANBU too because Snake said she had a nice sensei too once when she said I reminded her of her sensei, she said she was the 'best person in the whole world'."

"Yeah, her names Anko by the way. And Yugao is Cat's name, we were all students of your mother."

"Thanks. Sigh. I can't trust you, but, your right, you weren't the in the wrong and you have been helping me for the past few years and I can't hate you after that. For now, I'll try to be professional, Sensei."

"Thank you, Naruto. Anko well, please go easy on her if she comes to you, she had to deal with a similar situation to you but not as bad. Also, please do the same to Yugao, sensei was all she had and it's not my place to say but she needs you to forgive her, she loves you very much. When she heard sensei was pregnant she couldn't wait to meet her 'otouto' and when we thought you died we all took it badly."

"Ok, goodbye sensei." And with that he left.

(With Artemis)

The Gods had discovered something about the other world that truly terrified her, the 'door' was breaking, it seemed it could only open once more, once open the 'door' would begin to break apart before permanently shattering leaving no way for that world to ever be accessed again. They would be only able to send one of them to that world and since many of them were arguing over who would go she was terrified of not seeing her son again.

"I should be the one to go, my son should be brought back to our world, he is the son of the King." Zeus roared to the other Olympians. He was angry that any of the other gods thought their child was worth more than his was.

"No, brother my daughter is to be brought back, she was destined to be strong." Poseidon said equally angry.

"No, if anyone's going to be brought here, it's my Yugito, she was such a cute baby I can't wait to see her all grown up." Wait Yugito, but if Aphrodite was her mother then- "No, B shall be the one to return." B! No, did that mean- "No it shall be Yagura, she deserves to be here." No!

"SILENCE!" Artemis screamed, she never spoke much at these meetings so what was so important? "Are you telling me you three are _their_ parents?" Artemis said incredulously. They all nodded confused.

"Do you know them? Oh, that's right, you made a body to live a lifetime there didn't you. What's my baby girl like, wait how do you know them?" Aphrodite asked confused, the other gods were also confused as to why she knew the children by just their names.

"This is bad next thing you know Apollo will be little Fu-chans father."

"Fu? That's what I named my daughter how did you guess?" Apollo asked gaining even more confusion from the whole group. Artemis paled and gasped, "No way, but then, did any of you have a child named Hana?" at Hephaestus' nod she paled even more. "Utakata? Roshi?" Hades, who had been brought here as he had a child there, and Athena both nodded at their child's names. "Shit, but wait, Garra?" At this Hera gasped and sputtered, everyone turned and looked at the Queen of Olympus.

"H-h-Hera?" Zeus asked confused.

"I did as Artemis did and made a body I fell for a man and sired three children from him before dying during my final son's birth, his name is Garra. How do you know the names of the children we had in that world?" she asked angrily.

"Damn it all nine of them, they're all demi-gods?" Artemis said to herself.

"What are you talking about, nine of who, you only said eight." Apollo said mentally counting down the names, why were they so special other than they were the children of Gods.

"In the ninja world, there exist nine beings each stronger than us, than the Titans, they were born of a primordial, well not born, they were made in a similar way to Aphrodite, they are parts of the primordial." At this the Olympians, all paled. "The ninja of that world decided that they were too powerful and developed a method of containing them, like… well, them," She said, knowing that particular organisation was not spoken of fondly on Olympus. "The bijuu are sealed into human babies while their chakra network can handle the strain. These children are called Jinchuuriki, that is the fate that happened to our children."

"That's a good thing, isn't it? They can protect themselves." Aphrodite asked.

"No, it's not, the body I made I used the body of a child who would have died so I took their space and sent her soul to the next life painlessly. I was eventually brought to become the next Jinchuuriki of the kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox. We became friends eventually I met a man who I loved, I didn't lose my virginity but I used him to get pregnant as it is one of my domains. I had a son but unfortunately there were complications and the kyuubi was released, Minato sealed kyuubi into our son and we died, by that point the 'door' was closed."

"What has that got to do with our children?" Aphrodite asked, starting to get annoyed.

"All of our children, they are Jinchuuriki."

The gods whose children were involved looked amazed all except Hera who looked like she was trying to remember something.

"Artemis, which of the beasts does my baby hold?" She looked unsure whether or not to be happy, rather she looked happy but seemed to realise there was a downside.

"The one tailed tanuki, Shukaku." At that she gasped remembering her 'husband' telling her of the Shukaku monster, that if his host fell asleep it would eat his soul, how the lack of sleep drove the last host mad. She covered her mouth with her hand and sobbed quietly.

"Jinchuuriki, they aren't considered human, they are monsters, demons, slaves, weapons for their villages. The Jinchuuriki is treated like trash. It all depends on how many people know and how many the demon killed in its 'wild rampage' their lives are hell."

"You said you knew them so their still alive." Apollo shouted.

"I don't know, my mortal body died twelve years ago I don't know if anything happened to any of them in my absence."

"Do you know how they were treated?"

"Somewhat, it is a private affair for most Jinchuuriki to talk about their past in such a way. I was the exception, only a handful knew I was a Jinchuuriki. I tried to help the younger ones I remember some of the things they told me. It was never pretty, from what I understand Fu lives in a tree outside the village, Yugito stays in a house on the very peak of Kumo's mountains, the others I don't know."

"Which is why I will be the one going to collect our children." No one disagreed she knew all of their children, they would trust her and she had a reason to bring them all back and wouldn't leave one of them behind over a petty grudge.


	5. Chapter 5

(Naruto the next day)

Today, Naruto had an exam to do he got up and had breakfast early as he ate he wondered what kind of exam he would get, after asking his kaa-chan he found out it was likely that his overall skill would be tested along with his teamwork. As he seemed confused as for the teamwork, she explained.

 **"Konoha shinobi believe that their teamwork will allow for them to defeat tougher foes together. While this is true the level they take it to leaves their individual skills to stagnate which leaves them vulnerable. They are arrogant with this and many of their beliefs which is why I won't you to be strong and not just rely on my power. Especially since it was made unstable by that seal."**

"What do you mean kaa-chan?"

 **"Your father summoned the death god and sealed all of my yin chakra inside the Shinigami and the yang into you. Because of this it took years for me to grow my yin chakra back to their original level. It was finished just as you turned seven, it was part of the reason the seal sent you there after the… incident."**

Naruto froze, he just had brilliant, crazy and completely stupid idea. "Kaa-chan how come it took so long for you to regrow your chakra back."

 **"Because kit this seal takes some of my chakra and merges it into yours, it would have taken a year or two to simply grow it back but because I was being constantly drained it set me back. Why are you asking?"**

"Because I had an idea, what would happen if I were to free the other half of you from the Shinigami? Could you reabsorb it?"

 **"No, kit. The power has its own consciousness, my darker side in a way. The power it contains is what you called on against Mizuki, it makes you angrier and caused you to nearly lose control. Think of my power like an egg, the outer casing is the yin chakra it wraps around me and my yang chakra, which can heal me. It is what heals you from your injuries since you had so much of it running through your coils as a child before I stabilised it with my yin chakra, this caused it to balance out but you kept the healing factor. When you use the bijuu cloak the red chakra that surrounds you will be the yin and your healing factor will be near instantaneous due to the yang chakra in your coils."**

Naruto grinned, "So what would happen if your dark side and you merged?"

 **"We wouldn't be able to."** At this Naruto's face looked confused, **"kit, us bijuu have a limited amount of chakra we can physically hold, that limit for us infinite but exactly infinite, it would be like making matter, completely impossible, the universe makes sure of that. Because of that we can never get any stronger than we are now as we have all reached our peak. If I were to absorb any considerable quantity of chakra it would act like a newly made Jinchuuriki would at the start until the chakra left my system, if a source as substantial as another me were to get absorbed I would explode. My chakra would then disperse and because of the intermingling forces of my other me and the current me we would be unable to reform. The chakra would eventually join with the natural chakra of the planet and I would be lost. It is the only way to truly kill one of our kind but since no one could forcefully give us chakra and none of us our dumb enough to actually take power from someone it couldn't happen."**

"Wait you can't get any stronger?"

 **"That's not what I meant, our chakra supply cannot exceed what it currently is."**

"Ok, well kaa-chan I need to go and do this test so we need to go and do my test."

With that he went to the training ground and waited for his team to show up. It wasn't long till they appeared and they exchanged pleasantries, when their sensei arrived they sat up and waited for the test to begin.

"Well then, your test is simple take one of these bells off of me by ten, if you fail you will be sent back to the academy." Kurenai said looking at them and pointing to the bells attached to her waist. "Now begin." With that they blurred into trees and disappeared, with the exception of Naruto who tilted his head confused looking. "Sensei, there's something off with this test."

"Well then, are you sure?" 'Did he figure out the test already. How?'

"I don't know, but I'm going to have to fight you for those bells. You are a jonin so I would be hard pressed to steal from you." Naruto stated then dashed at his opponent and went into a flurry of punches that Kurenai thought was very impressive for a genin. His attacks were mid to high chunin, impressive for a fresh out of the academy genin.

She was a jonin for a reason and as such was accomplished in taijutsu, sure she was no monster like Gai but she could go one on one with Kakashi in a simple taijutsu battle and though he was slightly stronger she could beat him many times. She stopped challenging him to fights when he said something that haunted her to this very day.

 _"Are you Gai's sister, cause your starting to act like him, Hmm, your eyebrows are getting a bit bushier and you have started to talk of your 'youthful appearances'. Next, you'll be wearing one of his jumpsuits and will have your hair cut like his.'"_ At this she immediately had her eyebrows done, stopped using any word sounding remotely like 'youth', which became a problem at the dentist, and finally burned every piece of green clothing or anything that looked remotely tight fitting, much to the males of the villages displeasure.

Anko and Yugao said she was starting to act crazy, especially Anko who saw one of her shirts that she lent to Kurenai in the pile of burning clothes. She then used a jutsu which has been deemed forbidden unless on particularly 'unsociable' prisoners when searching for information. The jutsu itself had questionable effects on the physique of the person it was used on.

The genjutsu made both Anko's and Yugao's cloths turn into Gai's 'youthful suit', they were then horrified to find that they couldn't take them off. Slowly a mirror appeared in front of each of them and they watched as their hair slowly started to fall out leaving them bald before it quickly regenerated into Gai's haircut. To make matters worse their eyebrows started to grow till they eventually became like Gai's.

They then both tried to shout out a horrified 'NOOOOOOO' but what came out was a cry of youth that chilled them to the very bone. To make matters worse another voice seemingly called out a reply of 'YOSH' they then fell to the floor and wept but what came out was a mournful 'yosh'. Kurenai eventually let them out of the genjutsu at which point they rushed home and did exactly as Kurenai did.

Shivering slightly at the memory Kurenai caught one of Naruto's fists and replied with a fist of her own only for him to dodge. The fight continued for about ten minutes before Kurenai decided to finish it and test her other students so with a quicker attack she managed to punch Naruto only for him to explode into smoke.

"Kage bunshin? But when…"

"From the start," she heard a voice and before she knew it she was being assaulted on all sides by a swarm of Naruto's. She put all her efforts into fighting them and managed to defeat them all leaving her alone panting in the clearing. Why was she so tired she hadn't been fighting long and she hadn't even used her chakra unless…?

"It seems she's figured it out." Naruto's voice said. As he appeared form the other side of the clearing beside Shino who called off his beetles from her as she would likely hurt them now that she knew. "Sensei, will you give, we've won all that's left is to take the bells so you could just hand them over."

"I'm sorry Naruto but I'm far from over."

"I know but we gave you the chance to give up, such a shame."

"You think you can take me; you may be powerful but your far from my level."

"That is true, but without any access to your chakra and with you barely able to move."

"I can move fine."

"Not for long, NOW!"

"You're in my range of divination." Said a voice from behind her. 'Shit.'

"Jūkenpō: Hakke Sanjūni Shō"

And with that Hinata hit Kurenai in as many pressure points as possible leaving her to collapse into Naruto's arms as he set her down and took the bells off of her before passing them to the other genin.

"Thanks guys, well done Hinata, Shino. Well now Sensei, we have completed the test and figured out the true meaning of it do we pass."

"Yeah, well done. I think that is the first time anyone managed to actually complete that test on the first try. You all pass with flying colours welcome to team 8." Kurenai said between gasps. "Now how about we go out for a congratulatory meal on me."

"S-s-sur-r-e sen-s-s-sei, let me unb-b-b-lock your chakra for you." Hinata said with her stutter.

"Um, sensei, you know I'm not allowed into many restaurants will let me in due to my… pranks." He said that sadder and Kurenai looked guilty before brightening up and saying, "Well, you know… it is illegal to deny service to any Konoha ninja without a good reason." At this Naruto looked shocked before grinning. "Thanks sensei."

With that they went to a barbeque restraint, the waiter was about to throw Naruto out, but one look from Kurenai shut him up. They were about to sit before they heard the sound of Ino's voice, they looked and saw her and the rest of team 10 sitting there. They went over and sat with them after exchanging pleasantries.

"So, I take it your team passed as well, Kurenai-chan." Asuma stated.

"Yes, they passed with flying colours, now we just have to wait for Kakashi to give in the report. So, we have plenty of time."

They all enjoyed a lunch together and the jonin both paid the bill. They saw Kakashi and his team, the three jonin left their teams to chat or in Sauske's case brood quietly. The nine of them waited for their sensei to return to give them their time and place for their team meetings. When the jonin returned them, and told them were to meet them tomorrow for training. They all went home and Naruto quickly entered the mindscape.

When the other Jinchuuriki finally arrived, he quietened them and said he had to tell them something, when they were all watching him expectantly expecting him to tell them how his first team meeting went. What they weren't expecting was his next words.

"I know how to defeat the Shinju completely."

Both the bijuu and Jinchuuriki were shocked.

 **"How?"** Gyuki asked.

"Overload him with chakra."

At this Kurama's eyes widened as she remembered the conversation from this morning.

"If all of you split your chakra like Kaa-chan did and they 'escaped' from us only to be captured by the Akatsuki the Shinju would be reborn, then all we need to do is 'feed it' more chakra and force it to overload with chakra it would explode and be destroyed, right kaa-chan?"

 **"Yes, it would, if it were that easy, the Shinju would need to be tricked into taking the chakra, that would be impossible without some sort of medium drawing it in. It would have to be something conscious, it would also have to be sealed when one of us is sealed as the Shinju wouldn't notice with all of our energy being sealed."** Kurama spoke.

 **"It would also have to be done during Kurama's sealing as the influx of demonic chakra coming from the next bijuu being sealed could rip apart the spirit even more than normal."** Matatabi said thoughtfully

"Would a soul work?" Naruto asked quietly.

 **"Yeah but we wouldn't be able to separate our souls like that."** Matatabi said.

 **"Besides no human soul would be able to stand having their soul ripped out like that and stay sane, the body could survive without the soul but it would be put in a coma."** Shukaku began.

 **"But the pain would destroy their soul and mind, they would be effective anchor but they would be sacrificed to pain worse than… that time."** Isobu finished sadly.

"So, it would have to be a human who was tricked into being sealed preferably during the sealing of a bijuu so that it wouldn't be noticed." Naruto said quietly.

 **"Yeah but no human would be able to survive being in close contact to the bijuu chakra for a prolonged period of time,"** Chomei began, **"hell no Jinchuuriki would be able to stand Kurama's chakra only..."**

"Me." Naruto said and all of the Jinchuuriki and bijuu's eyes widened in horror, none of them expected this. "I'll do it."

 **"NO!"** Shouted both the bijuu and Jinchuuriki in sync. None of them wanted to lose any of their family, especially Naruto, he had suffered enough.

"It's the only way to defeat the Shinju once and for all."

 **"No, you aren't going to do this Naruto you won't sacrifice your life-like this."** Kurama began,

"You've been through enough!" Fu shouted, she was horrified that Naruto would even consider this.

 **"Naruto, your soul wouldn't die, it would disperse with the Shinju, your soul would be ripped apart and you would be in agony for all eternity."** Saiken said, this child was special to all of them and the thought of such a fate was too much for anyone.

"But you'll all be safe, the bijuu would forever be free of the threat of the Shinju and the Jinchuuriki would be the heroes of the world, you would be treated like humans, you wouldn't suffer anymore."

 **"No. You've suffered too much. You won't go through with this."** Kurama said, tears starting to pool on the ground.

"Kaa-chan, it's the only way for you to be free, I'll become part of the world. Then no one would be able to hurt me anymore. Then all of you can live on, maybe you'll be able to love and be free of the hate surrounding you but I can't forget any of it."

 **"Very well."** Kurama said to the shock of all the others.

"Kurama, what are you talking about? Why are you agreeing with him?" Yagura said

 **"We won't change his mind and I doubt we could stop him from doing this. He'll do it no matter what. His plan is also the only way to kill the Shinju."**

"But… he can't… please." Fu begged

"It's the only way." Naruto said before fading into sleep. He left the bijuu to try to calm the Jinchuuriki they knew his decision; he was going to go through with this. Maybe there was a way to lower the chance of him dying or at least to lessen his pain. They would try to find a way; he didn't deserve to suffer.

(Artemis' tent)

Since the other gods found out about their children they had come to visit her to ask about them the only one who hadn't had just appeared in her camp.

"Hello Hera." She said to the goddess who just entered her tent.

"Please tell me about him."

"He was a new born when I last saw him and I don't think he knew much but he always seemed happy to see me when I saw him, he was such a cute baby, so small and with the rings around his eyes he looked like a ginger racoon. He should be fine, Shukaku gives all his Jinchuuriki automatic control over sand, it protects him automatically. Nothing could hurt him without breaking the speed of sound."

"Thanks Artemis."

"As for emotional support, he has the other Jinchuuriki to look after him, they'll treat him well."

"Thanks." With that she left, leaving Artemis to her thoughts. 'Son baby, son I'll be there.'


	6. Chapter 6

(Several months later)

Team Kurenai had been training and doing D-rank missions for the past few months, over time the team had grown closer, Naruto had come to terms with the fact that she hadn't been lying about not hurting him that night but had yet to speak again of it. They had yet to do a C-rank but that was ok as they had plenty of time to train. So far Naruto had only learned chakra control exercises up to the water walking, he had learned one jutsu from his sensei it was the wind release: great breakthrough. After finding out he had a strong wind affinity that shredded the chakra paper he began training his affinity, with the help of Asuma and shadow clones he was on to cutting the waterfall but had been unable to progress due to the lack of waterfalls in Konoha.

As they made their way to the tower for a mission they ran into team ten and walked with them to the tower. When they reached the missions office they could see the Hokage sitting there looking very serious and troubled.

"Teams 8 and 10, I have a mission for you, I'm sorry but there are no other teams available for this. You are to backup team 7. They had a mission to guard a bridgebuilder and his family as he built a bridge. Unfortunately, the client lied about the rank and it is currently resting at a B-rank due to the appearance of the demon brothers. They have not given up on the mission and are on their way to the land of waves. You are to backup Kakashi and his team."

"Alright you heard the Hokage, pack for the mission and meet at the gate in one hour." Asuma stated. They all ran off to get what they would need. They met up at the gate and were on their way, they were about a day's run at a ninja's pace from the land of waves so were likely to run into Kakashi's team on the way. They were nearly their when they heard the sounds of a fight.

They leapt out of the bushes to see Kakashi trapped in a bubble of water and Sauske and Kiba being beaten by 10 water clones while Sakura watched on terrified.

"Naruto, you and Shino take care of the clones, Shikamaru cover them. Choji you and Ino help guard the bridge builder." Kurenai ordered and the genin complied. Naruto quickly took care of the first clone before he and Shino tag teamed the second and third. Shikamaru used his shadow to stop the one that managed to get behind the pair and Shino quickly stabbed that one in the throat. The fifth swung an enormous sword at Naruto who dodged before kicking its legs out and stabbing it as it fell. Shino threw shuriken into another forcing it to jump over the hoard letting Naruto drop kick him in mid-air as it could not dodge. Shikamaru paralysed one before getting it to hit its partner with its sword. Shino punched this clone leaving only one left which Naruto promptly dealt with by throwing a kunai hitting it in the head.

Sauske seethed, he was the one who needed to be stronger not this idiot and the bug freak. Kiba though a bit annoyed that he was outshone knew he probably would have died if he continued to fight unaided and so was grateful.

They all turned and saw the jonins fight and were amazed to see Kakashi copy Zabuzas jutsu and with the force of a tsunami smashed him into a tree. He looked at Kakashi and said something which was interrupted by having his throat pierced by senbon. They all looked up to see a Kiri hunter ninja come and take his body and sword, before disappearing in a swirl of water.

"What were you thinking Kakashi?" Kurenai began, "bringing green genin on a clearly miss-ranked mission, what did you think was going to happen?"

"I-" he began before collapsing apparently the sharingan wasted a lot of chakra, which made Naruto wonder if it was worth it. All it did was copy jutsu which while it sounded good on the outside became bad when you realise that you couldn't actually master a jutsu on first sight and if a smart person were to fight an Uchiha they would simply do a suicide jutsu and not activate it at the end leaving the dumb Uchiha to die. When he voiced this out loud Sauske was furious.

"The sharingan, is the ultimate bloodline! No one can beat an Uchiha with their sharingan except another sharingan user." At this Naruto just looked at him confused before saying, "then how did Madara Uchiha the strongest Uchiha in history lose to Hashirama Senju?" Sauske was speechless.

"It was probably a fluke, the Senju probably got a lucky hit in." Sauske said causing Naruto to laugh, before he continued, "besides the sharingan gave him the ability to control the bijuu." At this Naruto laughed even harder.

"Ok, ha-ha, let's say he was able to control the bijuu, Hasirama was also 'allegedly' able to control the bijuu as well. Furthermore, the Yondaime was able to do what neither of them could, and he had no clan so if the strongest Uchiha could be outdone by a 'commoner' then what does that say about your supposedly 'god-like' eye."

After saying that the rest of the group were speechless, he had basically called the strongest Uchiha weak compared to the Hokage's, he also left no room for argument as all his points beat anything the Uchiha could come up with. They spent the rest of the trip in silence and eventually reached the clients house. There they met with the client's daughter and grandson who looked almost angry at them for some reason, 'grr, you have brought my grandfather home safe and sound, that is evil!' Naruto thought sarcastically.

Eventually when Kakashi regained consciousness the jonin told the genin of their suspicion. They believed Zabuza was alive and that the 'hunter ninja' was working with him as they didn't destroy the body but took it with them and senbon can be used to hit the pressure points on the neck and put someone into a false death like state.

After hearing this the genin were all surprised but knew that it would take a while for his injuries to heal, in the meantime they could train for when he does reappear. When they were all done they went to bed but discovered there wasn't enough room for all of them so Naruto, Kiba and Shino went to camp outside.

When they all had their shelters up and were ready to sleep, Kiba pulled Naruto to the side. He said, "Thank you for helping us back there, I'm sorry for always being an ass to you in the academy. Me and Sauske would have died back there if it wasn't for you, so thank you."

"It's ok, I would have done the same for anyone."

"Well, anyway, thank you. Oh, Sauske probably won't thank you as he probably believes he would have won but you and I both know we would have died back there. Well, good night." And with that Kiba went to bed and was quickly followed by the others. When they all went to sleep Naruto entered the seal as he needed to talk to his big sister about what her ninja they were doing here.

He saw Yagura the forth Mizukage chatting to her brothers and sisters, you see, years ago when she first became Mizukage Obito had appeared in front of her and attempted to put her in a genjutsu to command her to destroy all the bloodlines of Kiri. It turns out he wanted to instigate a civil war among her people. She quickly defeated him but allowed him to flee as now that he was in charge of Zetsu's plan he would be easier to defeat than the hard to keep track of remnant of the Shinju.

It turned out that due to the vast diversity of bloodlines in Kiri he was wary as some of the users could grow to be too strong for him to deal with and they could eventually destroy Akatsuki. Due to this she had been able to reveal some of the information on Akatsuki to her village and as such they were now ready for the organisation. After that Obito somehow managed to create a rogue element in her village that would attempt to 'purge the world of evil' by killing bloodline users. Unfortunately, there were many casualties and some of the villages turned on their bloodline users. This was stopped before too many casualties occurred and Yagura punished the guilty parties.

Now that Obitos plan was ruined he had to lay low for now as he believed that he endangered the secrecy of Akatsuki. That was years ago and now Yagura had stopped all instances of bloodline segregation. The young Kage had also decided to inform the other villages of the Akatsuki's existence and told them to watch out for anyone wearing the cloaks of Akatsuki. She told them that the man in charge would likely try to instigate civil war and she suspected him to be a rogue Uchiha as she had seen his eye.

The Hokage had denied any involvement on Konoha's part and that he was only aware two Uchiha existed, Sauske and Itachi. He suggested it may have been a stolen Sharingan like the way Kakashi used his. In any case all of the ninja villages were told to kill any ninja wearing the Akatsuki cloaks on sight.

By now many of the weaker members had been killed which forced them to go into hiding. Obito was seething by now as his 'subtlety' had been disrupted, he also feared that his cover was blown in some way as they assumed he was an Uchiha.

So now that the civil war was dealt with, Kiri was quite peaceful resulting in a happy Yagura. She was currently talking to Yugito and B about the possibility of getting them to ask the Raikage for an alliance between the two nations. B was now hailed as the guardian of Kumo and was the current Raikage's adopted brother so he could possibly convince him to ally with Kiri and Yugito was helping them come up with a way of talking him into it subtly as the Raikage had a soft spot for the young holder of the Nibi. After being adopted as the Raikage's brother Yugito had become closer as B had been taking care of her.

As they were finishing 'plotting' their way in to convincing the Raikage into an alliance using Yugitos surprising mastery of the 'cute kitten no jutsu' Naruto went up to them.

"Yagura-nee-san, do you know a ninja called Zabuza Momoichi?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, he is one of my ninja, he and his apprentice Haku are currently on a mission guarding some big rich guy I think. Why?"

"Well, he is kind of working for Gato, who happens to have illegally taken over wave country. Our team is on a mission to protect an old bridge builder who Gato wants dead."

"What?! Are you ok, did he hurt you? Are you hurt-" and with that both Yagura and Yugito entered 'protective big sister mode' and made sure he was ok.

"I'm fine, he didn't hurt me, I was just wondering if you want me to keep Zabuza alive or if you could get him to surrender, see it's teams Kakashi's mission but the Hokage sent our team and Asuma's team as backup, Zabuza is only A rank, he might be able to defeat one of our sensei's but not all three. Also, he might cause an international incident for Kiri."

"You're right, I'll have to call him off since the mission was to act as a bodyguard, there was no assassination mentioned in the mission scroll. Since the client lied the mission would have to be called off. Thanks, otouto, that idiot would get in so much trouble because of that."

(Next day)

Since Zabuza wouldn't be up ready for fighting and Naruto couldn't tell them of his newly acquired information they went off to train. They decided that since Kakashi was out for now, Kurenai and Asuma would take turns training each team as they could each help all of the teams in different ways and Asuma wanted desperately to train another wind user.

As the other two teams learned from Kurenai and Kakashi who was in crutches, Asuma took care of team 8, he started by showing the three of them how to use their elemental affinity in battle, for Hinata he knew very little as her affinity was water but he did tell her that her stance in the Hyuuga's style was too stiff and suited those with earth affinities better as it didn't flow at all. Instead he told her to try and make her moves flow more before leaving her with a clone to practice with.

For Shino, who had an affinity for fire, he taught a few jutsu and left him to practice with a clone to give him pointers.

Finally, for Naruto he knew how far along in his mastery of his element so he decided to teach him some of the jutsu he knew that would help him.

"Now for wind there are two ways of utilising it that I know of, you can use it to cut, like me, or you can use it to push back opponents. There are some users of wind who can do both." Naruto thought back to what Garra had told him about his sister and how she used her fan to create gale force winds that could act like a wall or become a vicious tornado.

"But," Asuma continued, "there is an exercise I think you could do since there are no waterfalls about," He pulled out a blunt rapier that looked rather bland, "it is only for practice, I want you to use chakra to make the tip into a point so you can jab through this tree. Remember what I told you about using wind chakra, use it but only at the very tip, if you master that then I will teach you my personal style. The flying swallow."

Naruto's eyes widened, "why?"

Asuma laughed, "there aren't many wind users in Konoha, in fact I can only think of one more and I sure as hell won't teach it to him."

With this Naruto started to attempt the technique, Asuma kept an eye on him, eventually he managed to jab it half way through the tree and they went back to the bridge builders house, they all ate their food in silence before Kurenai stormed in looking angrily at Kakashi, he kept reading his book, "Hatake Kakashi, what the hell is wrong with you? You brought three new genin on a C-rank without teaching them the tree climbing exercise!"

Kakashi still read his book but his hands were shaking slightly out of fear, Kurenai grabbed the book out of her hands and then through it out the window causing Kakashi to hide in fear but his injuries prevented him from moving quick enough to avoid the beat down of the poor man.

Eventually everyone calmed down and started to chat about their training, all of them were chatting happily except Inari who sat there and started to cry, Naruto noticed this and asked him, "hey kid you ok?"

"Shut up, why do you try so hard? You're all going to die!"

"Why do you think that?"

"You'll all lose to Gato, he's too strong, he'll kill you all!"

"Nah, I'm too awesome for that, 'sides, we're going to beat him, dattebayo!" after a second everyone started giggling, "dammit I thought I stopped that tick."

"Shut up you don't know anything! You live in your nice village; you don't have a hard life you don't know what it's like to be in pain!"

"…" Everyone was silent for a minute, the genin were just confused but felt sorry for the kid, he'd obviously been through a rough time, the jonin however were scared of Naruto's response to this, they all looked at Naruto, everyone felt a tension rising and they all turned to him who didn't move his hair overshadowing his eyes, this lasted for a minute and by now everyone was uneasy.

"HAHAHA" Naruto was laughing, from out of nowhere. He looked Inari right in the eye and continued to laugh, with that he left the house, grabbing the training rapier as he left. They all looked at the door completely flabbergasted, then they all turned to Inari. Kurenai then looked him in the eye, "Inari, I know you may have had a hard life, maybe you've lost more than any child should but I can guarantee Naruto's life has been much worse, you would be wise not to bring it up again that goes for all of you. His past is just that _his_ , you have no right to know so don't ask about it."

With that she walked off, eventually the others did the same leaving a confused Inari to his thoughts.

(With Naruto)

Naruto just went back out to train, he continued stabbing at the trees in the clearing around him in the clearing. He finally managed to get the rapier through the entire tree in one hit, he sat down for a bit before stabbing it once more into the tree, he left it there for a few minutes just looking at it. He then pulled it out slowly and turned around and walked away, he stopped abruptly and turned back to the tree.

He then ran straight at the tree before using the tree climbing exercise to run up the entire tree, as he reached the top he jumped up and from Tazuna's house there was a silhouette of Naruto, mid-air he turned and faced the tree he jumped off of, as he started to fall he felt the wind around him whistle, he added his wind chakra to his sword and then pointed it at the tree. He heard the sound of the wind stop as it all turned to silence, as he met the tree he stabbed the sword into the highest part of the canopy and his descent pushed him through the canopy he reached the highest part of the trunk and pushed his sword through it. There was the no sound his rapier just slid through the tree with ease, right down the middle.

As the hilt hit the bark it seemed to stop for a split second before the tree split at the top and formed a 'V' shape, he continued down and the tree split further when he reached the bottom his sword buried itself in the dirt and both sides of the tree fell to the side both landing on the ground.

He pulled the sword out of the ground and looked at the blade, it had cracks along the sides of it and parts of the blade had splintered off, this blade wouldn't last long, once he put the chakra in it the blade would not survive, he doubted many metals could withstand him putting that much chakra into it, only chakra metal could withstand his chakra going through it in that way, maybe he could get his hands on some. Even then he didn't like the rapier, it felt wrong in his hands, he knew he had to find a weapon for him to use.

He sat down and his thoughts drifted elsewhere he slowly dozed off.

(Next day)

Haku was looking for the herbs to heal Zabuza, he had served him ever since he had saved his mother. He needed to heal him and there were herbs around here that could help, as he was looking around he noticed a tree which must have fallen, the strange thing was it was split right down the centre and he could see the other half just across from the first half. It was cut evenly in half, that was scary, anyone or anything that could an at least fifty-foot tree in half like that would be noteworthy.

Then he took notice of the perpetrator one of the young boys guarding the bridge builder, he saw a badly damaged rapier by his side, no way did he do all that damage with a rapier, he must have another weapon hidden somewhere. No one could cause this much damage with a blunt sword, a rapier no less that type of sword was rarely used and was usually for mercenaries who think they look scary.

Haku woke over to the boy mentally debating if he should kill him, she reached out and was about to grab his throat but changed direction and went for his shoulder instead. Just as his hand was going to reach his shoulder the boys hand grabbed it in a firm grip.

"What are you doing?" He asked, almost angrily but Haku could hear an underlining edge of… fear?

"I'm Haku Yuki." Naruto relaxed at this, unknown to him Naruto knew exactly who he was from Yagura, he had been scared because he was always scared of being in any close proximity of women, especially if he didn't know them.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He said letting go of his arm, "what are you doing out here Haku, it's dangerous for a young boy like yourself to be alone in the woods."

"I'm a… wait how did you know I was a boy?"

"Trade secret."

"Ok… I saw you asleep there and woke you, it's cold, you might get sick."

"Thank you. What herbs are you looking for?"

"These white flowers, there for a friend, he's sick."

"Here I'll help you."

With that they got to work collecting the herbs, when Haku deemed their job done they started talking again.

"Are you a ninja?" Haku asked.

"Yes, I'm a ninja for Konoha, why?"

"I was just wondering why you were training, you seem pretty strong already, if it was you who did that to the tree."

"I can always get stronger; I have a reason to now."

"Why do you want to get stronger? What is your reason? I personally believe that you can only get stronger if you have something to protect."

Naruto grinned, "I guess you're right, I have to get stronger for my family, I have to make sure they are safe. What about you, why do you get stronger, little hunter."

"W-what are you talking about?" Haku asked visibly nervous, how had he figured him out? how long did he know? Does he have a trap set?

"Well little ninja, you just gave it away." At this Haku felt like an idiot, he had stuttered like a fool and had been discovered for such a small mistake. Naruto looked at him, "I don't think you answered my question, why did you get strong?"

"For Zabuza-sama. He saved me and my mother, recently in Kiri there was a civil war, on one side were the Mizukage and the vast majority of ninjas, on the other were a large number of civilians and some of the powerful ninja, most of the seven swordsmen were against the Kage and they led the charge, all except Zabuza-sama, who stayed loyal to the village. The reason this war began was because many of the civilians thought that bloodlines were demonic and believed their users should be 'purified' they tried to kill them but only killed a few. Me, my mother and my father lived in a village around the hidden village, my mother had a bloodline, my father was unaware. Eventually I found out I shared this bloodline but my father saw, he tried to kill me and my mother along with several of the other villagers. We ran, they were catching up so mom told me to run ahead so she could hold them off, I didn't I was too scared, they were already upon us. Just as they were about to kill us, Zabuza-sama appeared, he told me to close my eyes, I heard screaming from the villagers as they were killed. I was brought back to Kirigakure no Sato for protection along with my mother."

After that Naruto felt sorry for the boy, he had a life similar to Sauske, the only real difference was that Haku still had his mother, he saw how much difference there was in the two of them, maybe it was because Haku still had his mom or maybe it was just because Haku was happier with the people slaughtered dead.

"The war was over quickly and most of the swordsmen died but two of them managed to escape: Raiga Kurosuki, and Kisame Hoshigaki. Since most of their supporters were civilians it was a quick civil war, Kisame was the only one who was S-rank, but even he pales in comparison to Yagura-sama. She is the Mizukage currently, her and her friend Mei Terumi are the strongest in the village but Yagura-sama is stronger."

"Thank you for telling me that, I get the feeling that we will not be enemies soon, what is the mission that you and Zabuza are on?"

"We are to protect Gato."

"I don't see how killing Tazuna is part of that mission, I'm pretty sure with the way things are going you might cause an international incident due to the fact you are helping destroy a village with trade routes through quite a few powerful countries, your mission may cause a war."

Haku paled.

"Go and inform your master of this would you." Naruto said.

"Ok, thank you, I don't know what would have happened if the mission were to continue."

"No problem." With that Naruto left the clearing and went back to the bridge builders home. He entered the house and met up with his team, they were worried about him and their worries doubled when he told them that he met Zabuza's apprentice, he told them that they had come to aa mutual agreement of sorts when Naruto pointed out the political ramifications of this mission. They all agreed but were still on guard in case Zabuza came to attack the client anyway.

Naruto and his team went with Asuma again and Naruto showed Asuma the results of his training. To say he was shocked was an understatement, Naruto had managed to turn the technique that was useless as it could only be used on a rapier into a technique similar to Kakashi's raikiri. The technique could only be used on rapiers which due to their weakness were never really used and as such was never used. Most wind users learned this to help their concentration when using wind chakra, it was never used on such a large scale. When he saw the state of the sword he realised that such a technique could not be used without quickly destroying the weapon, if there was a weapon that could handle the chakra then it would be a deadly technique.

"I need a weapon that has a thin point and a long shaft to allow for me to put the chakra into it, since it cuts through wind resistance I think that it would have to be perfectly straight since if it curves at any point it will catch on the wind. I also think it would be better if it was used with a long-ranged weapon, it is hard to control and if at any point I turn direction the wind resistance comes right back and sometimes damages me. Long range would be best"

"Senbon?" Asuma asked.

"No, not long enough, and I thought of a spear but the chakra would damage it too much if it was wood and a metal spear would be too awkward to carry around, a wooden one I can pass off as a staff at least."

Asuma, thought for a moment, "How good is your aim."

"Pretty good but it depends on what I'm using." Naruto replied truthfully.

Asuma smirked a bit, "have you ever used a bow before?"

(Near the bridges completion)

After no sightings of Zabuza or his apprentice it was safe to assume that he would not show up, now it was the last day of construction and no one had shown up, teams 8 and 10 were currently guarding the bridge builder and his workers while team 7 were guarding his family. Eventually they saw a large group headed towards them it was mostly bandits but there were a few 'samurai' in the mix at the lead was a small man.

"Where is Zabuza." The small man said confused.

"I'm here." Said a voice from the other side of the bridge, Zabuza and Haku were standing at the edge of the bridge, "Gato, I'm afraid that our contract had no mention of me killing civilians only protecting you, since you tried to cheat me our contract is up and you will pay compensation."

"Well since I wasn't going to pay you anyway you will have to die alongside these shinobi from Konoha, men charge." What followed next was a slaughter as the men Gato hired were soundly beaten by the ten ninjas, Gato was all that was left, he was grabbed by Zabuza as he tried to escape.

"Don't worry about him, he will pay the village all that he has which is not owed to Kiri. After that we will be off and he will be put on trial in Kiri." Then he left and Haku soon followed, the bridge was quickly completed and Wave had a party now that Gato was finally gone. Soon came the day that the three teams from Konoha, after a teary goodbye from Tazunas family including a rather teary-eyed Inari.

They were soon on the road and made it back in two days, the jonins gave the briefing and the mission to wave was over.

(With Artemis)

Artemis was beginning to wonder how her son was, she couldn't imagine him being anything other than a baby, maybe he would look like Minato. She wondered if the whisker marks on him were still there, oh he was so cute with them, he was like a little baby fox. He might have a girlfriend, no he would never have a girlfriend, he was her baby and no hussies' going to change that dattebane. Not that again.

She wondered what her hunters would think, would they want to like him? Of course, they would they are the nicest girls ever, unless you were a man… Oh, maybe she should explain it to them about her son, they would probably be happy to meet him maybe they would form a brother - sister bond, she did think that her hunters were like daughters to her so they would love her son.

She wondered if he had any of her talents in hunting, maybe he used a bow to fight or maybe he used knives the same way she and her hunters did. She would know soon, only three years left to go. Maybe the bijuu had told him about her, no, she made them promise to tell no one about her goddess status. Soon she would see him again, soon.

She felt the presence of another god in her camp, one she recognised immediately, she turned to the entrance of her tent as he entered. "Father." She said, inclining her head respectfully.

"Daughter," he inclined his head too and took a seat that appeared out of nowhere, perks of being a god. They sat in silence for a moment before Zeus spoke again, "I have much to discuss with you."

"Is this about Bee?" She asked, cutting straight to the chase.

"Partially, I want to know what he's like, you would have known him for some time." He said.

The topic of her siblings was always strange for Artemis, the mortal ones in particular, for the most part she hated them. There were exceptions, mostly the female ones, though rarer than her brothers, they were tolerable, even nice. It was her male siblings she didn't like. Herakles was an example, she hated the arrogant male. Though her step-mother's punishment seemed… harsh, many did not know of the various crimes he committed without punishment, not all his exploits were recorded. Her father was blinded by his love for his son, it was only when he became a god that Zeus began to see his son for what he was, after that he punished Herakles to act as an overrated doorman. Regardless, she was getting off topic, for now focus on the present.

"Bee is strange," she began, "he is probably one of the lucky ones, his home, Kumo, treat their Jinchuuriki with more respect," her father visibly relaxed at that, "he was still ostracised, but he was adopted," her father clenched his fist angrily, "by the Raikage, leader of that village, so he is politically safe. He practically adopted Yugito, Aphrodite's child, so she's safe with him, they are closer than some of the others." She smiled to herself, "the last time I saw him he just found rap, he wouldn't stop speaking in rhyme for a week, he's about as annoying as my twin in that sense." Zeus smiled at that, he gave a small gesture for her to continue and she did, "he is a prodigy with lightning, could outdo most of the instructors." Zeus couldn't stop beaming with pride, but then his face took a serious edge.

"I wish we could keep talking about my son, but there are other matters that must be discussed." He sighed before beginning again, "you spent time in that world, you said you were one of the Jinchuuriki and that they lived horrible lives, I know you said your status was kept secret but…" Zeus looked at the floor and Artemis knew what he wanted to talk about, though her father could be a dick, even she agreed to that, there were moments he showed he was more than he was usually portrayed. At the moment, she felt happy that her father actually cared about her wellbeing, a bit insulted that he thought that she, even a small part of her, couldn't take care of herself, but she was happier.

"Father, I wasn't mistreated, I lived a happy life there, my only regret is leaving my son." Artemis replied.

"Yes, that brings me to another issue," Artemis felt her heart stop and her face pale, Zeus seeing this placated her fear, "I won't hurt him, I swear. I just wish to, err," the god blushed, "you say you didn't break your oath, but…"

"I swear on the Styx I have not forsaken my oath," thunder erupted from the sky in conformation.

"Even so, the Styx may not see it that way, you would get a light punishment but your son…" Artemis paled, "the fates may not like this outcome, they may harm him."

"I have not broken my oath, they can't do anything." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself though.

"I understand, but the fates may not, I'm merely suggesting that he would be safer in the other world." Zeus said.

"And what of your oath?" Artemis said, her father gave her a stern glare and she knew she had crossed a line, "I apologise."

"If what you say about that world is true then I cannot allow my son to stay where he isn't safe." Zeus said sternly, he would bend as many rules as possible for the lives of his children, but it was hard when he had to uphold the laws and lead by example.

"I agree, which is why my son is coming home." Artemis said firmly.

"Another matter is the bijuu, what will happen to them?" Zeus said, changing the conversation, to not sound hypocritical.

"I don't know. They may stay with their Jinchuuriki or they may stay, none of us know what will happen." Artemis answered honestly, "but they will not attack us, they care for little, but the lives of their hosts are important to them, in that we will share a mutual agreement of trust."

Zeus looked thoughtful for a moment before muttering out, "I understand." And leaving in a ball of lightning, very dramatically.

 **A/N: So Zeus is a good dad, yay! Still dramatic though**


	7. Chapter 7

(Weeks later)

Naruto and his team had been training, they had been keeping to D-rank missions after the C-rank to wave. None of the other teams had left the village, apparently the others had to take some time off because of the massacre on the bridge on the mission. They couldn't handle death on such a large-scale due to the sheltered lives their parents gave them. They kept up their training but Hinata and Shino both seemed very subdued, and, though they weren't usually the most talkative in the first place, didn't talk much too him.

They eventually got over it and began to act normally after Kurenai had a chat with them about the duties of a ninja and how they needed to eventually kill. She was sure to be as nice as she could about it and explained calmly that you don't need to kill all the time, she personally used it as a last resort only.

Today he was going to team training, his sensei was late so he and his teammates just chatted and waited for their sensei, eventually she showed up with three sheets in her hand and a large box in her arms. She handed the forms to the three genin, and they looked confused for a moment before looking at her expectantly.

"I've entered you three to the chunin exams, it is up to you if you want to enter."

The three genin looked at each other before Naruto said, "I don't know about these two, but I would like to give it a try."

"I agree," Shino started, "it would be most logical to try the exams, why? Even if we lose we will gain experience from this test."

"I al-also would like to t-try the exams." Hinata's stuttering had improved in the months on team 8, her sensei and teammates were determined to help with her confidence issues.

"Well then, show up at the academy tomorrow in room 301." Kurenai said they all began to leave, but Kurenai called Naruto back, "Naruto, Asuma told me you were interested in learning to use a bow." It was true, Naruto had made a few temporary bows, somehow instinct guided his hand in their creation, and he found he was really good at using the bow but he always managed to break them by putting too much chakra into the arrows.

"Yeah, I figured out my new technique would work well with a bow but I keep breaking the ones I make, the arrows work fine but only once, to be fair I have just been using sharpened sticks."

"Well then, I hope you like your present." She said, she put the box on the ground and opened it up, inside was a bow, it was rather simple looking, it was all black and had short blades protruding off of the top and bottom of it, the blades were short only about five inches long each. "It is made out of carbon fibre with chakra metal blades, I also had some arrows made for you, they don't have actual tips, rather they are sharpened to a point, they won't suffer from wind resistance. There are one hundred and twenty arrows there and I got you three quivers each with a maximum limit of forty each." Kurenai said handing Naruto the quivers, he put one of them on his back, before examining the bow.

"Think of this as a late birthday present. I hope you enjoy using it."

"How? Why?" Naruto asked.

"You're my student, as for how, sense… your mother gave me this before her death, she was amazing at archery. She loved her bow, but I don't know where it would be but I remember at one point during her pregnancy she decided that we her students should learn this, she could teach us as she didn't need to move much to show us how. In the end, she had us do a competition which I won, this was mine and now it is yours. She would have wanted this; besides I never use it to be honest I only won her competition because Anko and Yugao can't hit anything with a bow."

Naruto was stunned, his sensei was giving him something so valuable to her, this was one of the last things remaining of his mother. He looked at it again and saw that it indeed did look unused but it was not dusty or anything, in fact it looked almost new.

"Thank you, Nee-chan," at this Kurenai looked surprised, "I'm sorry that I blamed you and the others for what happened that day but you and they looked after me and helped me." Kurenai had started tearing up slightly. She never thought he would ever call her that like that again. "Do you know where Anko-neechan and Yugao-neechan are?"

"We're here otouto." He heard from behind him, he looked and saw both Anko and Yugao standing there with tears done both their faces.

"I'm sorry, I acted like it was all your fault but-" he was interrupted by Anko who had brought him into a hug. Tears began streaming down his face.

"There's nothing to apologise for otouto," Anko began, "what you did was understandable, I'm just glad I have my little otouto back." Kurenai and Yugao soon joined the hug and the three women felt complete again.

(Next day)

Naruto was talking to Konohamaru, the Hokage's grandson, and his two friends, Moegi and Udon, he wasn't sure why but the kid decided that he was going to be his rival for the spot of Hokage. Naruto never really wanted to be the Hokage but he decided to humour the little kid, he agreed to play ninja with the three of them so now he had run off to hide.

Naruto heard a yell from the direction Konohamaru ran off into, he turned the corner to see the young grandson of the Hokage being held by a young boy dressed as a cat with a lot of make up on his face, behind him was a young woman with a fan, he saw their suna headbands and realised they must be here for the exams.

"You might want to put the child down before you cause an international incident." Naruto said calmly, "I don't think the Hokage would appreciate you threatening his grandson." With that cat-man paled under his make-up and set the boy down, dusting him off and trying to apologise. "Ok then, I take it you're here for the exams."

"Yeah." The girl said.

"Kankuro," a voice Naruto knew all too well called out to cat-man, "you're a disgrace," with that Garra came out from behind the tree, Naruto smiled slightly and the siblings each looked terrified of their younger brother.

"G-g-g-garra," said the now named Kankuro and then Naruto looked to the final member of their team who must be Temari.

"We're leaving," with that Garra left leaving Naruto and Konohamaru.

(Later that night in the mindscape)

"Hello Garra, why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Naruto asked.

"I wanted to surprise you, little brother." Garra replied with a smirk.

"One you're only a few months older and you are still the little one, and two you said like six words before leaving and none of them were to me."

"Well I couldn't exactly say anything to you otherwise anyone could find out about the link and then try to abuse it politically or shut it down, remember it is a secret."

"Ok, ok, by the way, why are your brother and sister so scared of you?" At this Garra looked sad.

"They fear me, my sand reacts to anything dangerous, one day a villager threw a rock at me, the sand killed him, they were there, they saw what my sand did, they think I'm a monster."

"Sorry."

"I need to tell you something important," Garra said, his entire tone becoming more serious, "Suna is going to invade Konoha during the final stage of the exam, they've joined with a new village called Oto, they are going to use me and Shukaku to cause as much damage as possible."

Naruto was now shocked, "what can I do? It's not like I can say to the third that there will be an invasion, he would need proof."

"Well do with it what you can, maybe you could tell him that a Jinchuuriki has entered the exams at least."

"No, that could get you in trouble."

"Well then look out for any suspicious activity from any of the jonin from Suna. Especially Baki my sensei, he is pretty high up in command. Also watch out, Orochimaru has a spy in the exams, I don't know much about him, but he is a Konoha shinobi, he may try to approach you and gain your trust. I don't know much about him right now, but my sensei will meet with him soon, I'll tell you more as soon as I can."

"Ok, thanks for the help."

(Next day)

"Yugao-neechan, could you do me a favour?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Be careful around the Suna nin and Oto nin, something is off about them, Kaa-chan thinks so too. Tell the Hokage to keep an eye on them."

"Why, what do you mean?"

"I don't know, there's just something off, and watch out for the sensei to Garra no Sabaku, Baki I think his name is. He seems strong and to train the Kazekage's children he must be, also Kaa-chan says the Oto people smell like snakes."

"Ok, well thank you, but I am an ANBU."

"Doesn't mean I won't worry about you Nee-chan."

"Thanks, but that doesn't mean I won't worry about you, just, please be careful with them, and tell your boyfriend as well." Yugao blushed at this.

"H-h-how, did you know that?"

"Trade secret."

"Ok, I'll warn him for you."

"Bye Nee-chan."

"Bye otouto."

Naruto left leaving a confused Yugao behind, she wondered why he told her to be careful of the Suna group, they were allied with them and would help them, the Oto group she could understand his mistrust as they were a new village and there was little to no information on them. The part about snakes made her understandably worried about them, she knew of only one ninja who used snakes so she would inform the Hokage. There was something off about what Naruto said, like he wanted to say more but couldn't.

She would figure it out later, for now she would tell the third, maybe he could help uncover the mystery. She would be on guard around the ninja from both the sand and the sound villages, she would also tell Hayate. How did Naruto find out about the two of them, it wasn't a secret or anything like that, but people just didn't seem to notice?

Naruto went on to tell Anko and Kurenai to be careful around the two. They too were confused but agreed like Yugao.

(Day of chunin exams)

Naruto and his team were walking up to the academy, they were all nervous but excited at the same time. They had made it to the second floor and saw a group of genin trying to get into a door, the sign said 301 but Naruto knew it was on the third floor, a genjutsu.

Naruto signalled to his team to ignore it and they all went up the stairs to the third floor, their sensei was there waiting for them. She looked at them before saying, "well, it's a good thing that you all came, to enter the exams you need a team of three. I didn't want any of you trying to pressure any of the others into joining, good luck." And with that she opened the door to let them through into the room.

The room was full of ninja from other villages, there were ninja from all of the major villages and most of the minor ones. The all eyed the team before going back to whatever they were doing before, they saw team 10 and went over to talk with them.

"Hey guys, you in these exams too?" Choji said through a mouthful of food.

"Yeah." Naruto said, before looking at the clearly asleep Shikamaru.

"I wonder if team 7 is going to be joining us." Choji said.

"Of course, they will! S-Sauske-kun will be here soon, he's going to win these exams and then he'll realise he loves me and…" Naruto tuned Ino out as she went on a rant about 'her Sauske-kun', he always noticed Ino sometimes said Sauske's name weird, but that wasn't any of his business. Eventually team 7 did show up with a badly beaten looking Sauske in tow. Ino didn't see this and just went over and hugged him.

"Well looks like all of us are here now." Kiba said getting an affirmative bark from Akamaru.

"You lot should probably calm down," came a voice from behind them, they looked to see a white-haired man with glasses on, "a lot of the teams here are very nervous and get violent when they're nervous. I'm Kabuto by the way." The spy, as Garra had told him, Naruto immediately began to break down every tiny detail about the man.

"Ok, what do you want?" Sauske asked.

"Nothing, I just thought I could help out my fellow Konoha ninja." Kabuto answered.

"Ok then, thank you Kabuto-san." Sakura said.

"No problem, you are all rookies aren't you, if you want I could give you some information."

"You've done these exams already?" A now awake Shikamaru asked.

"Yes, this is my seventh attempt."

"Seven times, you must be really bad at this." Kiba said.

"Or," Naruto started, "you are purposefully making yourself look weak while you get stronger."

"Well, I am pretty good but I always get nervous in the finals, but I have come across information, these are info cards, they may look empty but when I apply chakra to them the writing becomes visible. Anyone you want information on?" Kabuto said, ignoring Naruto's statement.

"Rock Lee and Naruto Uzumaki." Sauske said.

"You could just ask." Naruto said sarcastically.

"Ok, Rock Lee," Kabuto began, "he's on a team led by Might Guy, his teammates are Hyuuga Neji and Tenten. He has no skill in ninjutsu or genjutsu but his taijutsu his abnormally high, his taijutsu is off my scale. Naruto Uzumaki, failed the academy three times," Naruto growled at this, "is on a team led by Kurenai, his teammates are Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino. His skills are very high in taijutsu and ninjutsu and his use of long range weapons is above my scale. His genjutsu isn't the best but with Kurenai as his sensei he has improved drastically. His chakra level is abnormally high."

Naruto smirked at the last part but saw that many of the other ninja had listened in on the conversation, most of them trying to find a weakness. "Your information is a bit out of date but is still pretty accurate, which makes me wonder why you would have information on me considering I haven't done these exams before, and considering I only found out I could participate in them a few days ago it would be odd for you to have information on me before, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were _spying_ on me."

At this Kabuto flinched very slightly, it went completely unnoticed to most of the genin, but Naruto noticed and so did Shikamaru and Shino. The jonin and ANBU watching from a hidden spot in the room or the video feed from the jonin lounge began to pay more attention.

Naruto smirked again slightly and began again, "Of course maybe you are just very good at finding information, maybe you just got lucky and found some information on me, maybe you just _happen_ to have jonin level reserves which you are suppressing remarkably well for a genin with:"

Naruto pulled a card out of thin air that looked remarkably similar to the ones in Kabuto's hand, in fact, on inspection that was a card from Kabuto's deck. How did he get it with no one noticing? The people who knew Naruto knew he would answer that with 'trade secret'

"Four years' worth of D-ranks, with twelve C-ranks. You have quite a small chakra level? Well that's just not true, you are easily on par with a jonin but your supressing it to the point that on first glance you appear to be a genin. An odd choice but maybe that would give you an edge on your opponents, Hmm, then why would you drop out at the last minute of every final." At this Naruto put on a mock thoughtful pose.

"Aha, maybe you were just scared, well that seems strange, surely if you displayed this level of skill you would get a field promotion. That seems rather odd, but you know what else is odd, the fact that you have yang chakra constantly circulating your system it isn't doing anything, yet. It seems to react to the movement of those around you, but it is consciously done, Hmm, oh, maybe it is a technique but what would it do, Hmm." Another thoughtful pose. At this point Kabuto looked fine to most of the genin but Naruto, Shino, Shikamaru and the jonin could pick up on a lot of facial twitches.

"Oh, maybe you use it by reacting to opponent's movement, you know facial twitches hand movement and pre-emptively apply medical chakra to the area you will be hit to give the appearance of instant regeneration. That seems awfully advanced for a genin with," Naruto looked at the card, "medium aptitude in medical ninjutsu." By now Kabuto was sweating slightly and the jonin were in awe, he had just figured out a technique he hadn't even seen yet, how did he fail the academy, most Nara's couldn't do that.

"Well maybe you just wanted to do well in these exams, I wonder why you didn't in the others. I was also wondering where you got that smell from."

"Smell?" Kabuto asked he was wondering where he was going with this, he was already worried enough this kid could blow his cover.

"Yeah, are you friends with the Oto ninjas?" At this there was a big twitch on his face, this one was noticed by many more of the genin. Kabuto replied, "No, I haven't met any of them before in my life how would I ever meet them?" he gained some confidence in that last statement there was no way for Naruto to tell he knew them.

"You know that is a good question, because I was wondering the same thing, it is odd for you to share such a similar smell, that is why I asked you about, Kiba did you notice?"

"I guess; I don't know what it is though." Kiba replied.

"Well of course you wouldn't it is a rare smell here in Konoha, tell me Kabuto do you have a pet?"

"No, what does that have to do with anything?" Kabuto answered, much too quickly for him to be comfortable with the situation.

"Well that takes that theory, you see, you and the team from Oto share a strange smell, in fact there is only one other person in Konoha who shares that smell and I doubt you know her personally. She's a bit antisocial, she has the same smell because she has some 'pets' that are rather peculiar. Which makes the thought that you have a similar situation is impossible as she has a contract with her 'pets' and you clearly don't. Of course, the fact that this smell is shared between you and the Oto nins could be a coincidence, but such a coincidence doesn't usually happen. Do you want to know what the smell is?"

At this most of the genin nodded so quick they looked like a bobble head doll, "well then," Naruto continued, "the smell, is snakes." Now Kabuto had visibly started sweating, now Naruto had him where he wanted him. The jonin were now very interested in this genin now.

"Isn't that odd, so Kabuto why do you spend so much time with snakes?" Naruto asked with false innocence in his voice.

"Well… I… Um." Before he could finish Naruto interrupted.

"You see, if I didn't know any better I would say you were a spy, quite possibly for Oto, but since I do know better I can just assume you are just a friendly Konoha ninja."

'You played him Naruto' thought Garra, he told Naruto about Kabuto and Orochimaru's part in the plan to invade as soon as he heard more about him. 'Now what are you going to do? Will the village bring him in, or are they that dumb?' Naruto practically gift wrapped Orochimaru's right hand man.

With that Naruto sat down in one of the chairs provided and there was a large puff of smoke at the end of the room and a large man appeared with several chunin. "Ok maggots, sit down and shut up. I am Ibiki."

They all sat down at their seats before Ibiki continued, "Ok now, I will explain the rules of this exam, you will have 45 minutes to do the exam, there are 10 questions, 9 on the paper and a tenth will be given at the end. You start with 10 marks and for every wrong answer you lose a mark, if you are caught cheating you lose 2 marks, if any of your teammates get 0 you are disqualified."

The exam began and Naruto was trying to decide on a way of cheating that no one could see him do, he decided to simply do nothing. He knew the true meaning of the test was to find information but he also knew that to finish the exam all he would need to do was survive Ibiki's psychological warfare. Naruto had heard of Ibiki from Anko and knew that this would be his way of putting people out, he would make them panic and then he would play them to his tune.

(In the jonin lounge)

"That is some kid you got there Kurenai." Asuma said.

"I know, that Kabuto kid, you think he's a spy?" She asked.

"By the evidence the kid suggested I'd assume so but none of that is evidence enough to have him brought to trial, hell it's not even enough to be brought into questioning for." Kakashi said.

"Even so, he's a genius, he figured out a technique he hadn't even seen yet all from facial movements and his chakra." Asuma said, "you've taught him well."

"Thanks, I think we should tell Hokage-sama about the Kabuto kid, he might put an ANBU on him, especially with the snakes." Kurenai said.

"Yeah, I'll tell him for when the exams are over." Kakashi replied.

(Back in the exam hall)

"Ok times up." Ibiki said, 'why did that kid not right anything, does he know it's a façade, if he does I would promote him right now for being able to see through me lies.'

"Now there are some special rules regarding this question, you can choose to take this question. If you decide not to do it, you are disallowed from any other chunin exams ever." At this there were outbursts of 'you can't do this'. Ibiki shouted, "shut up, you have to decide, I don't care if you have done these exams before, I wasn't the exam instructor then. Now choose."

Now people were leaving the exam hall in shame dragging their team with them, now there were drastically less teams in the exam hall. The rookie nine were all there still though.

"Well, no one else want to leave? Well then, I guess this is all. You pass." Before anyone could say anything, a blur came through the window and a banner appeared, it said "The Second examiner: Anko Mitarashi!" Ibiki looked at her before saying, "You're early."

"Well I had to come early, I had to see if the gaki made it through." Anko replied before looking right at Naruto, "there you are, I take it you made it through then."

"Of course, are you doubting me Nee-chan?" Naruto asked with false shock.

"Of course, not otouto." She looked around the room, "Ibiki, your losing your touch, there's so many left, I guess I'll have to make sure that only a handful of teams make it through, I'll be making sure their numbers are at least half."

Now the other people taking the exam, were visibly nervous. Anko told them all to follow her, she led them to the a large fenced off forest with many signs around it all warning people not to enter, Anko began speaking, "welcome to training ground 44 also known as, the forest of death." At that moment, a large roar came from the forest. "You will spend the next five days here. The rules are: You will be given a heaven or earth scroll, you have to come out of the forest with both, you will have to meet in the tower in the centre of the forest. Now I need you to sign these, gaki, give these out for me would you." She handed Naruto some forms.

"These forms make sure that the hidden leaf is not responsible for any injury or death that happens in the forest." They quickly signed their forms and gave them up, they received a scroll form some chunin, Naruto received a heaven scroll.

Anko pulled Naruto to the side before talking to him, "otouto stay safe, this is a dangerous exam and a dangerous place to be, please be careful."

"Don't worry Nee-chan, I'll be alright." Anko pulled Naruto into a hug, this was noticed by a long-haired ninja from grass. 'She' smirked at the sight, Anko looked over and noticed this, she felt like she knew that person but from where.

"Ok go to your gates." Anko shouted, "Now some last-minute advice, don't die. Now let the second exam begin!"

With that everyone entered the forest, some wouldn't make it out of the forest, and some would. In the end, they could only hope they would survive, there was one figure though, who had no such fear, they wore a headband from the hidden grass ninja they killed. They had two goals in this exam: to mark a certain Uchiha, and to try and tempt a Jinchuuriki to their side. This person knew the fate of a Jinchuuriki and he also knew their power, he knew what a valuable asset one would be, he also knew this one had a strong healing factor and thought that maybe he could be used in some of his experiments. Who knew maybe he would be the perfect host in the end.

Naruto and his team entered and they decided on a plan, Shino would use leaches to make a trap to catch one of the teams, they would then fight them for their scroll when they were weak. They managed to find a team from the hidden grass village who all looked very average and sprung their trap. To their surprise they didn't need to fight the team as they were all too weak, they left their unconscious bodies under the cover of some trees.

They could see the tower in the distance and were just focusing on getting there before sunset, they heard a noise and, against their better judgement, went to investigate. Naruto saw it was Garra and his team, they appeared to have run into a team carrying umbrella's.

"Guys," Naruto began, "if you ever have to fight that boy, run, just run as fast as you can because you won't beat him."

"Why do you say that?" Hinata asked, she looked saddened as she believed Naruto thought she was weak.

"Yes, I would also like to know, why? Because I believe that he is not that I have become much stronger and I would be able to fight him." Shino asked, he felt insulted that Naruto believed he wasn't skilled enough to fight.

"I'm not saying that you are weak I'm saying that he will most likely kill you." It was quite sad really but Garra had gone very dark, once upon a time he wouldn't have hurt a fly but know he was bloodthirsty, the only ones he wouldn't kill were the other Jinchuuriki, and maybe his siblings, he truly wanted to be closer to them but they made things difficult.

After years of hell from his village not even the other Jinchuuriki's comfort could calm his lust for killing, in the mindscape however he was a completely different person, he never regretted killing anyone, but around his 'brothers' and 'sisters' he was calm.

"Watch and you'll understand." And they watched Garra slaughter the three ninjas with his sand leaving only a bloody smear on the ground.

"Uzumaki," he said suddenly, Shino and Hinata became terrified that they were spotted, "I look forward to our match, it will, prove my existence completely whether I win or lose to you." Shino and Hinata looked at Naruto as they feared losing to the mad sand ninja. The team from Suna then left whilst team 8 looked at Naruto for an explanation.

"That is why you are not to fight him." He then led them to follow him to the tower thinking about what Garra meant by that. 'Maybe I can stop his killing rampages.' Team 8 eventually decided to make a break for the tower while it was night time to have the next five days for the next exam.

Suddenly there was a ninja in front of them, 'she' was from the hidden grass village and was eyeing Naruto closely. They stopped where they were and stood facing each other, Naruto looked at 'her' closely before scanning 'her' chakra with his sensory abilities. 'Shit, her chakra is nearly on par with the third, that's way above jonin level.'

"Who are you and what do you want?" Naruto asked, "You're clearly not genin in fact you're closer to kage, so who are you?"

"kuku, so cleaver little Naruto-kun," 'she' replied, "who I am, well let's save that for later, but I want, well I want to talk to a Jinchuuriki."

At this Naruto's eyes widened, "Shino, Hinata, run to the tower quickly and get help."

"But-"

"No buts, Now!" Naruto barked leaving no room for negotiation.

"kuku, that is fine by me in fact when you get there I would tell them to send help. I doubt little Naruto-kun would be dead, but I might accidently chop his head off. At this point, all you two would be is a hindrance, ne, Naruto-kun?"

The two genin ran to get help, they felt terrified of their opponent, but knew that Naruto was the strongest of the three of them and the ninja wanted him to 'talk' to him. He might be able to hold 'her' off until help arrived.

"Now that they have gone, why don't you show your true face, Orochimaru." Naruto said, surprising Orochimaru slightly, before 'she' brought 'her' hand to 'her' face and peeled the skin off of it to reveal a smirking snake sanin.

"kuku, what a cleaver boy we have here. Now Naruto-kun I would like to propose an alliance of sorts." Orochimaru said.

"Alliance?" Naruto asked.

"You see, I've decided to destroy this village once and for all, but to do that I might need a bit more help than I currently have, which is why I'm asking you."

"Me, why would I help you destroy my home?"

"Home, ha, I know what your life was like before, I know that you probably hate the village for what it has done for you."

"It's true I don't particularly care for the village but that won't mean I'll destroy it so I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline."

"kuku, Naruto-kun, I don't think you understand, this wasn't a choice."

"So, you'll what? Kill me?"

"No, I'll take your body kicking and screaming back to my lair, there I will experiment on you and eventually break you or, if you are too stubborn, harness your DNA, extract the kyuubi and then kill you. That is your choice."

"Well then, as fun as those options sound I'll go for option C." With that Naruto kicked off the ground and jumped at Orochimaru, who looked surprised at this turn of events, Naruto pulled out a kunai and stabbed him in the throat.

"That was rather anticlimactic." Naruto said before watching Orochimaru melt into mud, "a clone?"

"kuku, someone is optimistic on their chances against an S-rank nin."

"Yeah, I guess that was a bit too easy. Well I take it you have many mud clones in the forest ready to substitute yourself with."

"Your very clever Naruto-kun."

"I have to be; I'd be dead otherwise."

"kuku, that is true, why are you so adamant against joining me?"

"You're a very creepy person, you also tend to experiment on people and try to change nature in some very strange way, also your immortality jutsu is just creepy."

"How, how did you know that?" Orochimaru was amazed that this boy managed to figure out his jutsu, it was like Kabuto said in his last report.

"Well, you just gave it away. I guessed due to the fact that your chakra has too many different sources and the fact that I can sense what I'm assuming is your soul and the soul of your current host, she's still there by the way. Your soul is deteriorating by the way."

"What do you mean?" That didn't sound good at all, deteriorating meant dying and he couldn't die, he would never die.

"Well, your jutsu from the look of it uses your soul as a way to transfer between bodies, am I right?" With a nod his question was answered, "well, you're actually destroying your soul slowly by leaving a part of it in each body and since it was already split to start with, well, the soul can only survive that happening so many times before it starts to be destroyed naturally. I think the limit would by seven. After that the soul in each container will pretty much leak itself into oblivion."

Orochimaru looked horrified, Naruto though was thinking, 'I hope he buys this, I only know some of this as true, it's a good thing we managed to learn a good bit about his jutsu from his time in the Akatsuki, it is also good that Kaa-chan and the others explained how souls work. Though his jutsu will eventually kill him it will be decades till he faces that problem.'

"So how many times did you separate your soul?"

"I don't know. How do you know this?" Orochimaru asked.

"The kyuubi, the bijuu know a lot about souls and that sort of stuff, I was told that what you've done is both stupid and just wrong."

"Then I guess I'll extract it from you and take the information directly." With that Orochimaru lunged at Naruto and unleashed a snake from his mouth which in turn released a sword, as it was headed for his chest he moved out of the way.

"Now!" He shouted and Orochimaru felt countless pains all over his body, he looked down and noticed that he had holes going through his chest legs and arms in all areas, he didn't even hear anything, where were the clones to substitute from?

"I took the liberty of taking care of your clones while you were distracted, it's a good thing mud clones don't have the memory feature from shadow clones."

"H-h-h-o-o-w-w." Orochimaru asked through blood leaking from his mouth.

"Clones, you didn't think I didn't sense you before we got here, did you?"

"kuku, I g-g-ue-sss-s, y-o-o-u t-h-i-i-i-nk y-o-o-u h-a-vv-v-e w-w-won?" Before he could answer Orochimaru started to be throw up himself? 'Oh no, I forgot he could do this, maybe my clones can shoot him before he-' this thought was stopped as the sword Orochimaru used was protruding through his stomach. He looked down and saw the snake from earlier behind him with a sword through him.

He looked back and saw the second Orochimaru was dead but a third had risen and his clones had disappeared due to the quite possibly fatal wound. He could only hope the help came quickly.

"Well Naruto-kun, you fought well but it is over." Orochimaru said between pants, it seemed that using that technique was very draining, "a good thing to, right now I would only be able to pull that off once more." At this Naruto grinned and before Orochimaru could react had unsealed his bow and an arrow, he fired it using his technique his clones had been using.

"Musei hikō (silent flight)." He muttered as a hole appeared in Orochimaru's chest where his heart was. As Orochimaru shed his skin again, he laughed even though he barely had enough chakra to escape, "So that is your jutsu, you had your clones shoot me on command and somehow made your arrows silent, that is quite the dangerous jutsu."

"You know you won't be able to make it out of here with me and the ANBU are on their way, you better hurry up and leave." Naruto said between gasps from the pain of the sword.

"You are right Naruto-kun, I take it this was your plan from the start, keep me talking until you found a topic to distract me enough for reinforcements and then use your clones to take me out after destroying my clones. It was a good plan, now I can't take my prize but I think you will be too dangerous-" Before he could finish they heard someone coming, they both knew who it was, Anko. Orochimaru knew in his current state he wouldn't be able to survive a fight with her but she was too close for him to escape without a… Orochimaru broke into a grin and grabbed Naruto and removed the Kusanagi.

Then Anko appeared. "Naruto!" She screamed upon seeing him in his condition, he was bleeding heavily from a wound on his stomach and was currently in the hands of Orochimaru. "Let him go!"

"kuku, Anko-chan, why would I do that, now I want you to deliver a message for me to the old man, tell him not to cancel the exams."

"You're not escaping this forest!" Anko screamed but knew she couldn't attack him or her otouto would be hurt. "Now let him down."

"No, you see right now he is alive but how much poison can the kyuubi heal at a time?" He then produced a needle, "this has the most painful and deadly poisons on the planet, if I were to give him this he would have about an hour before he would die a painful death." Anko's eyes widened in horror, "now do you think you would be able to defeat me and get him to help before his painful death. This poison will keep him alive for days in agony, but the antidote must be administered within an hour or he will die."

"Nee-chan, don't worry about me just kill him, he's weak now so-" with that Orochimaru pumped the needle into his neck. He then dropped Naruto and through him to the ground before running away. "No, Naruto!" Anko shouted as she ran to her downed brother with tears in her eyes.

"Don't worry I'll get you help, just hold on."

"N-n-n-o-o-o, g-g-g-o-o-o a-ft-e-e-e-r hi-m-m." Naruto then fell into unconsciousness.

"Otouto, wake up, you said you'd be fine!" Anko sobbed, she quickly grabbed him and headed to the tower for medical attention.

(Artemis camp)

Lately Artemis began to realise that she was having an identity crisis, her and Kushina were two different people as far as she was concerned though they acted the same there was one difference, she hated all men while Kushina, due to the fact she was raised from a child and had a neutral perspective to most men but eventually fell in love. This came to a conflicting point when it came to her husband and son. She couldn't hate him but she didn't know what to feel, she didn't know how he turned out maybe he was like the stereotype of men that her hunters assumed they were. Maybe he was similar to the way Minato acted at his age, or maybe he acted like her. She needed to know, Kushina would love him no matter what but Artemis didn't know what to think, she wanted to love him but was afraid in case he was 'like all other men'.

Kushina couldn't wait to meet him but Artemis, honestly, she was terrified, she wanted to love him but her hatred was getting in the way. It was starting to confuse her and she hated being confused, her hunters were telling her that she was acting strange recently, she seemed to be angry according to them, this was true as when she was confused she normally just got angry. She needed to know the answer, only when she met her son could she know, she would tell her hunters soon, maybe they could help find her an answer. They will be biased but they could help.


	8. Chapter 8

(Next day at the tower)

Naruto was in the medical part of the tower, he felt like he'd fought an S-rank nin and nearly managed to beat him but ended up nearly dying only being saved at the last minute by Anko.

 **"Well kit that is exactly what happened."** He heard his kaa-chans voice she sounded relieved.

'Hey kaa-chan, where are we.' Naruto thought, after seeing Anko come everything was fuzzy.

 **"Well that sister of yours brought you here, Orochimaru pumped you full of a few poisons which would have killed you without a cure, fortunately, they were used on you before so you were immune to most of them and the last two I managed to help with. Anko didn't know this and because of the resent release of my chakra I wouldn't let any medics near you, they've all been worried for you."**

'Couldn't you have said something?'

 **"Oh yeah sure I'm sure appearing in the middle of the room will definitely help the situation."**

'Sorry, you're right.'

 **"You better wake up soon kit, they are scared for you right now. Your team and sisters especially, don't worry your team still don't know about that."**

'Thanks for the help kaa-chan, I'll see you in the mind scape tonight.' Naruto opened his eyes and saw a group of people all crowded round his bed.

"Naruto, Naruto please speak to us." He heard Hinata's voice, it seemed she got over her stutter.

"I'm fine." Naruto mumbled before blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he saw all three of his sisters, his teammates and the Hokage were standing around his bed. He was quickly brought into a hug by Anko who was mumbling apologies to him. "It's ok, it's not your fault. It's all on me. Did you get him?" Naruto asked.

Anko flinched slightly as she mumbled a 'no'.

"What happened while I was out?"

"Anko brought you here to help give you medical attention, you were near the tower and would have made it with your team if not for a rogue element in the form of Orochimaru so your still in the exams if you are up for it." The Hokage stated.

"Thank you Hokage-sama." Naruto said causing the third to look slightly sad at his formality.

"What happened to you otouto?" Yugao asked, she was not wearing her mask. Naruto then told his teammates to leave as some of this involved village secrets. When they left Naruto explained exactly what happened, they were amazed and horrified at the jutsu Orochimaru had to make him 'immortal'. When they found out all of the story they were even more amazed by the jutsu Naruto had created.

"Well then as soon as you are fully better you will be told where you are sleeping. Goodbye Naruto." The Hokage said before leaving him to his sisters.

"Otouto I'm so glad you're ok." Kurenai said through the tears going down her face, she then joined Anko in her hug.

"I thought you weren't going to make it when the kyuubi's chakra came." Yugao admitted before joining the hug and smothering him even more.

"I'm never letting you go again otouto, you're staying with me for ever and I'll never let you go and-" Anko was stopped by Naruto hugging her even tighter.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine, I'm not leaving any time soon, I love you Nee-chan." At this they all held onto each other tighter for a few minutes, eventually they let go and Naruto said to let his team in so he could explain some things to them, when they entered they both looked relieved that he was ok. "Hey guys, how's it going?" Naruto asked.

"You were just hospitalised, how do you think we are?" Hinata all but screamed at him.

"Yes, as your teammates we are worried about your well-being." Shino said.

"I'm fine guys don't worry." Naruto replied, "By the way when do the exams start?"

"In three days." Shino said.

"Well, is there anywhere I can get food, I'm starving?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, there is a canteen around here, are you ok for walking about."

"Yeah, don't worry I'm fine."

The rest of the week had no incident and eventually the day of the exams came about, so far, the rookie nine had made it along with the team with Lee on it and Kabuto's team from the leaf, the sound and sand teams were the only teams Naruto cared about though. The nest exam began with the Hokage saying the true meaning of the exams was to promote friendship between villages and as an alternative to war. The exams began when Hayate came into the stadium and said he would be in charge of these exams, he started by getting Anko to unveil a board that she seemed excited about.

"This board will select competitors at random, you will then fight your opponent in a one on one fight, if anyone wants to drop out now feel free, your team won't be disqualified at this point you're on your own." Kabuto dropped out at this point which caused the Hokage to look at him with a blank face for a bit before permitting it. He secretly signalled to Yugao to tail him. "Well then let the exams begin."

With that the matches began, the majority of matches Naruto wasn't interested in, he got interested when Shino crippled his opponent from sound though and saw Orochimaru's work in action, it was an impressive device but it had to many easily exploited flaws. Hinatas match against her cousin really interested him though, it began and they both seemed about even which infuriated Neji, he eventually began to use more deadly tactics. Hayate eventually called the match in Neji's favour as Hinata looked close to collapsing and Neji had clearly one, Neji was about to keep on attacking but Naruto stopped him. Just as he was about to hit her in the heart Naruto appeared in front of him with his bow drawn and aimed right between his eyes.

"Didn't you here Hayate, it is over." He growled out, he then turned to Hinata and carried her over to the medics, "don't worry Hinata, you'll be ok." He told her as he gave her over to the medics.

The next match to interest Naruto was Garra and Lee's match, Naruto was impressed by Lee's skill in taijutsu and was happy that he managed to get over his disability. In the academy, though they weren't friends they talked from time to time and he was a nice person. Garra eventually retook the advantage as the opening of the eight gates left Lee tired. Just as Lee was about to lose his arm and leg Naruto's kindness came through and he stopped Garra by using his bows blades to cut away the sand fast enough to stop Garra from disabling him even more.

Garra's eyes widened before he scowled, "what are you doing?" they stared at each other for a while and Naruto asked if they could quickly enter the link. Kurama managed to bring them both into the link while making their bodies stay still, time would pass slightly quicker in the link. "What are you doing Naruto?" Garra asked.

"You don't need to kill him brother, he hasn't done anything wrong. The people here don't know you, don't make yourself a monster to them."

"All the humans are the same, there are no exceptions."

"That's not true, I have my team, they are different, I also have my sisters they care for me and I do the same. You have your brother and sister, try to open up to them."

"They don't care about me, they fear me."

"They don't fear you, they fear what you have done and what you continue to do. Give them time, be patient, try to be nice to them they do care for you."

"Why should I?"

"You are human too. We both are."

"We are not human; we are Jinchuuriki."

"That word, it means power of human sacrifice. Human not monster. We are better than they think. They can call us monsters but if we become that then they are right, prove them wrong be human."

"…"

"Fine, put it this way, if you act human eventually they will treat you like one, it is better to be treated like human than a monster."

"I won't kill the strange boy, but that is only because you and I will fight, however it goes I will prove my existence."

"Will you try to kill me Garra?"

"No, I will never kill any of our kind, but I have no regard for their lives." With that Garra broke the connection and they went back to the real world. In the real world, their staring contest had been going on for nearly a minute before Garra broke contact. "He shall live, but we will fight in the finals. Do not disappoint."

"I won't." Naruto then turned to Lee, who was on the ground, he helped him up.

"Why did you stop the fight?" Lee asked angrily.

"I just saved your life, Lee, if he had got you with that sand you would have permanently lost your arm and leg and then you would have lost your life."

"But I didn't get to prove my ninja way, I didn't get to prove that I could be a great ninja without ninjutsu our genjutsu."

"Lee, you nearly beat Garra, none of the other genin in here could come as close as you," at this Sauske and Neji seethed.

"But Neji is the rookie of the year he-"

"-would have been completely outclasses in every way, he only knows the Hyuuga's taijutsu and, while that is strong, he couldn't have survived against Garra, hell most of the jonin in this room would lose to him and few would actually give him a challenge." At this most of the jonin seethed. "You are strong Lee one of the strongest ninja I've met and definitely the strongest genin."

Now Lee was crying tears of joy. "Naruto-san, your flames of youth burn brightly! You are truly a worthy rival!"

"Yosh! Lee, you must train to become even stronger to allow your flames of youth to surpass that of your rival!" Gai said as he appeared in the arena. "For now, though, you must rest. You are injured and must heal, opening the gates like that is dangerous so you must now rest."

The medics came to take Lee away to heal him, the next matches Naruto cared very little about and just zoned out, he then hears his name be called he looked to the board and saw who his opponent was, he smirked.

"Well Kiba," he began, "this will be a fun fight."

"Yeah Naruto, I've been looking forward to this, you're strong but ever since wave I've been training, me and Akamaru have been training with Kaa-chan and Nee-chan. I'm not as weak as I was back then, I'll fight you and I'll win."

"That's good, but I've gotten stronger too, I can't use my bow on you, I would kill you too quickly and you are going to be too strong, it would be a shame to kill you." Kiba growled lightly but had a smile on his face. Naruto shrugged off his jacket and Kiba did the same, they were both now wearing a mesh undershirt, they each threw them to the side.

"Come on Akamaru, let's beat him." Akamaru barked in response and jumped to the floor.

They looked at each other as the fight began, they were sizing each other up, Akamaru growled lightly as they continued, finally they jumped at each other and began the fight. Naruto punching and kicking while Kiba slashed and clawed, both of them seemed on equal footing in taijutsu, Kiba had been training harder than ever before he had become fast enough to dodge and block all of Naruto's strikes while Naruto was doing the same. Akamaru suddenly lunged at Naruto creating an opening for Kiba to slash him across the stomach they jumped away from each other and stood still, Naruto looked at the cut shirt and put his hand on his stomach he removed it and brought it to his mouth, licking the blood. After recreating one of the most badass few seconds of film he grinned and pulled out two kunai and held them in reverse grip.

"Well then, I guess I got to return the favour." He said before he rushed to Kiba and started to use his kunai to parry Kibas claws, Kiba realised he was slowly losing and decided to go on the defensive. Naruto just kept getting faster and faster until Kiba was hard pressed to block his strikes but was managing. Kiba jumped away and grinned at him, the grin fell a bit as he felt a pain in his side. He looked down and saw two cuts along his left side, he winced a bit before looking back to the grinning Naruto, "so that's how you want to play it huh, well then I'll cut you up, Akamaru." They looked at Naruto and then threw a smoke bomb at him causing the area around him to be filled with smoke. Naruto blinked then closed his eyes to focus on his other senses, he heard Kiba shout "Jūjin Taijutsu Ōgi: Gatsūga" before what sounded like a tornado came at him, he dodged one tornado and barely missed the second as it skimmed past him. "In here you can't see me," he heard Kiba say, "but I can smell you." With that Naruto turned and caught the claw aimed towards his face he then punched Kiba out of the smoke and kicked at Akamaru who also tried to sneak up on him.

"How, how can you see me?" Kiba groaned out, another punch like that and he would be out.

"You aren't the only one with a good sense of smell, I think I mentioned it before I have enhanced senses, not as strong as your clan but strong enough to smell you. You'll have to do better than that." Naruto said smugly.

"Right then Akamaru here." Kiba threw Akamaru a soldier pill which he ate causing his fur to become red. "Ok now Jūjin Bunshin." Suddenly there were two Kibas.

"Well if you can make clones then so can I, Kage Bunshin." Now there were one hundred Naruto's surrounding Kiba, this made him slightly nervous especially when he remembered these weren't illusions and could fight like Naruto. The first few came at him and Akamaru but they used a Gatsuga to tear through them with ease. After doing this he was no longer surrounded and had taken out about ten of the clones.

"I guess that is the weakness in this jutsu," Kiba said, "the clones pop like balloons."

"Yes, but I can keep on making them for a long time."

They kept fighting for a while but Naruto's constant clones began to wear Kiba down to the point where he could barely stand, Akamaru went out a while ago when one of the clones knocked him unconscious in the chaos.

"How are you still fighting?" Kiba gasped between breath, they had been fighting for about twenty minutes and had now nearly collapsed.

"Trade secret." Naruto said happily, "do you want to give up yet?"

"Examiner, I forfeit." Kiba gasped out he then fell forward but was helped by Naruto.

"That was a good fight, you do need to fight smarter though." Naruto said before handing the boy to the medics.

Naruto went up to the stands and stood with Shino. They waited for the rest of the fights to be done before being called to the stadium again, and were told the next exam would happen in a month. They were then told who they would fight by picking a random name out of a box, they all picked their numbers and saw who they would be fighting, Naruto was to fight Neji, Garra would fight Sauske and Shino was to fight Kankuro. The rest of the matches didn't matter to him, he looked at Sauske and then went over to Kakashi before he left.

"Kakashi, I'd withdraw Sauske from the competition, Garra will kill him and I won't be able to stop him when he does this time."

"Sasuke will defeat Garra, there are weaknesses in his defence."

"Yes, but Sauske is neither fast enough to hurt him and there are only a few ways to break his defence and even if you did he still has the rest of his skills secret to everyone. He is also like me, as you should know, anything you teach him will be useless against _that_."

"I have faith in him, he's an Uchiha, he will win." Kakashi said confidently.

"You're foolish if you think a month of training will help against a bijuu."

"You don't know too much about the clan the strength of the sharingan, when fully formed can control the bijuu, he may be able to subdue the-"

"The sharingan can't do any of that, that was propaganda made up after the first Hokage and Uchiha Madara lost to the Kyuubi, it was Uzumaki Mito who sealed the kyuubi becoming its first Jinchuuriki, the Hokage could also not subdue any of the bijuu he lied about that too. Kaa-chan told me and she was there, she only got sealed because Mito snuck up on Kaa-chan and then did the sealing."

"So, you'd trust the kyuubi over the villages history?"

"Yes, kaa-chan doesn't lie."

"I think you're overestimating this boy and underestimating Sauske."

"Sauske got his ass handed to him by Lee, he only survived because I intervened, I won't be able to a second time. If you want the idiot to die, then by all means go ahead and train him to fight someone who he has no chance against. But know he will die without intervention."

Naruto walked off leaving a pissed off Kakashi, he went over to Shino and told him that his fight with the puppet user would be easy as he could have his bugs eat the chakra from his strings. He then went over to his sensei, "Nee-chan how are you going to juggle me, Shino's and Hinatas training?"

"I don't know otouto I want you all to have some surprises for when the exam comes around and I think it would be fair if we sort it later." They were then told when and where to meet I the next month, Naruto left with his team and sisters, they made it to the village. Anko, Yugao and Kurenai brought them to their homes before bringing Naruto to his home, they brought him inside before they began speaking.

"Ok, how did you calm Garra down?" Anko began.

Sigh, "I can't tell you much but we each know we are each Jinchuuriki, we can tell instinctively." This was true he just didn't mention that they had known each other for years and were normally like brothers. "I basically promised to fight him to see which one of us is strongest, I did that in exchange for Lee's life."

"You can't fight him otouto, I won't let you!" Anko screamed, she was terrified of losing him again, she thought it was her fault he was hurt in the forest, if she had been faster he wouldn't have been hurt.

"I'm sorry Nee-chan but if I don't fight him Lee's life will be forfeit."

"I don't care I won't lose you, I can't lose you." Anko said with tears beginning to pool in her eyes.

"I'll be fine Nee-chan, he won't kill me, I saw it in his eyes, his eyes were the same as mine." Naruto looked at the three of them as they looked at him with teary eyes, like he'd just said he was going to fight a mentally unstable (from their perspective) Jinchuuriki, oh, right.

"You don't need to worry, I'll be fine."

"I still don't want you to fight him, he didn't look sane. He could hurt you." Kurenai said.

"Trust me on this, he won't kill me, anything he can do to me you know I can heal, please just trust me." At this the three women looked even more saddened, he didn't say he wouldn't get hurt but that he would heal.

"Please, don't do this, we don't want you to get hurt." Yugao was nearly in tears as she said this, they were all worried about him.

"I'm sorry, but I have to. I might be able to help him, he has problems and I if I prove him wrong he might change." Naruto replied. "Kurenai-neechan do you know how we're going to train over the break yet?"

"No, I can only train only one of you at a time, I was thinking that I can set days for each of you. We will sort that tomorrow." The three of them left him in his home and he went to sleep. He entered the mind scape and was immediately grabbed by the ear by an angry Yagura.

"What the hell is wrong with the two," she growled out. He looked around and saw Garra in a similar situation with Yugito, "we don't fight amongst each other. We all have enough problems without being at each other's throats."

This continued onto a lecture about irresponsibility and how he shouldn't fight his brother.

"Nee-chan please calm down, I don't want to fight him but I will have to, we're in an exam even if his invasion were to happen I would be the one expected to defeat him, for that I was planning on making a large illusion and then have a game of rock, paper, scissors. Then we would, you know make it look like the winner is too tired to keep fighting that way we could have fun while the invasion fails-"

"How do you know the invasion would fail?"

"Well, the Hokage knows about the invasion and has ANBU posted on most of the foreign ninja and your sensei and you in particular, especially after all you've done. Orochimaru also gave away the surprise, currently there are more ninja here than your village can bring and the seals around the village are very strong add in the third and the sanin it will be near impossible. Also, since you're their big 'secret' weapon and you'll be busy 'fighting' me."

"Fair enough but I will be fighting you know so does this change anything in your grand plan?"

"Not much, it just means we can't mess about while the invasion is happening, I guess this is more realistic. Ok do you want to bring in some rules for our fight?"

"Sure, as long as they are agreed on."

"Ok, so no killing or any permanent damage, I'm sure we can each heal most damage that either of us can do over time but no decapitation or tearing limbs or anything like that off seem fair?"

"Yes, next no one else shall interfere, none of your 'friends' are allowed to help you."

"Fair enough, also neither of us will hurt anyone else near the fight if we can help it, if someone does something stupid like get in the way of our fight that's their own fault." Garra nodded.

"Ok so we fight during the invasion, to make sure we don't get interrupted see if you can run off into the forest then I will follow you and we can fight in peace."

"I will try, if not I will go to the most isolated spot I can, I may not understand your reasons to protect your village but I will try not to destroy it, that does not mean I will not cause damage."

"Thank you. Is there anything else?"

"No."

"Well then I'll look forward to our fight, it will finally prove me right, we are above them my strength will prove it, your care for them makes you weak, everything I have learned has come from us not them, all you have learnt comes from them. When I beat you, you will see how much stronger we are without them." Garra said, this confused Naruto is that what he wanted to prove.

"That is what you want to prove?"

"Yes, once we are all in agreement of the human weakness we can get to work on the plan, we will find a way to use one of them to destroy the Shinju, that way you won't die and we can all live happily without any threats."

"I've told you before, there is no other way, and even if there was I'm still going to end up dying the person needs to have kaa-chans chakra in their system to survive the sealing, it is still the only way. We've stopped arguing about this." Naruto then left the mindscape.

 **"He's wrong."** Gyuki said quietly.

"What do you mean? Who's wrong?" B asked, the other Jinchuuriki had stayed out of this even though they wanted to stop them from fighting.

Yagura and Yugito who berated them for their foolishness thought it was going to be a fight to the death or something but once the rules were set down they were ok with it.

 **"There may be a way to save Naruto's soul, but at a cost."** The bijuu had been trying to find a way to save Naruto's life, there was only one they could think of but it could end worse than the original plan.

"How, what must we do?" Yugito asked, she was willing to do anything to save their brother.

 **"We can't, it would destroy them, it would increase his chances but the chances are only about fifty-fifty even if all nine of them do it."**

"We'll do it, anything to save him, we would give anything." Fu pleaded.

 **"Very well, it will be risky but we might be able to lessen his suffering, there is almost no chance of saving his life if he goes through with it, but if we do this there is a chance his soul will not be destroyed in such a way."**

"Why can't we save him! Why must he die?" Yugito screamed.

 **"He made a choice, as long as his plan is used he will die, what you can do is make sure he doesn't suffer for all eternity."** Son Goku said solemnly.

"How?" They all asked.

 **"How much of your humanity are you willing to lose for the life of your brother?"** Chomei asked.

"We are not and haven't been human, we are Jinchuuriki, we will give whatever it takes to save as much of our brother as possible." Hana answered.

The bijuu sighed as one. **"Very well, you all agree then."** Isobu said.

The Jinchuuriki all nodded.

 **"Then your choice has been made."** Saiken said sadly.

(In Ares temple in the Olympian dimension)

Ares sat on his throne, he had been contemplating what Artemis had said about the Jinchuuriki, so much power in them each had enough to rival gods and titans. Such power would bring a lot of war, if he played his cards right he could cause a war bigger than that of the war between the Titans and the Gods. He would be content with their war and could enjoy the look on the other Gods faces when they were forced to kill their children. A war like this could increase his power exponentially, no one would be able to stop him, he would be unbeatable. Unfortunately, he would have to come up with a plan, he would have to find a way to turn each of them on their parents.

The spawn of Artemis would be easy, just tell the kid what his mother 'really thinks' about him. Now came the part of war he was not the best at, strategy. Athena was the best at this but he was not his sister, maybe he would know what to do when the opportunity presented itself. Until then he would wait, he had years to come up with a plan and unlike what most people thought, he could be very patient.

 **A/N: Yay! Awesome Bruce Lee moment for the win!**


	9. Chapter 9

(Konoha)

Naruto was ready to begin training for the chunin exams; he'd decided to ask his nee-chan if there were any waterfalls about Konoha. His technique, while powerful, was in his eyes not complete. Due to the fact that he had not fully mastered wind chakra. There was a very big problem in his technique which was one of the reasons he didn't use it as much.

The problem was it was too powerful. Once it hit it went straight through and kept on going, he had no control over the distance, hell he didn't even know how far the distance was, every time he fired it he lost the arrow, the only one he could find was buried deep in the ground. He couldn't get it out and so far out of the arrows his sensei gave him he only had about half left. He found out where to buy more but they were really expensive.

His plan for the jutsu was to make it so that he could create an explosion of air at his command so that he could do more damage. To do this he would need to increase his control over wind chakra, for this he would need a waterfall. Then he would worry about completing the jutsu, maybe he could make more jutsu or variations using different designs for the arrows. Maybe he could, no. Finish this jutsu first then make the variations.

First things first, "Nee-chan, do you know if there are any waterfalls in the village, I need to finish my control over my wind chakra."

"I'm not sure otouto," Kurenai replied, "I'll try to find out for you though, why do you need to refine your wind chakra your jutsu is amazing it nearly defeated Orochimaru."

"It needs to get better, I keep losing arrows using it, I've been planning on finding a way to make it explode on impact, if I can do that then, finding the arrows might be easier. That would mean I wouldn't have to waste a fortune on them. How did you afford to buy me that many anyway?"

Kurenai smirked at him, "that is for me to know and you to find out my little otouto." She punctuated this by rubbing the top of his head, she then asked him, "do you not want to train with me or something?"

"No, it's just I need something to do in my time while I'm not training with you."

"Sorry." Kurenai blushed slightly, she was worried he didn't want her training, "Oh, Hokage-sama told me to tell you that someone has volunteered to help training when I'm busy with Shino and Hinata. He told me to tell you to meet in his office."

"Who? And why do they want to train me?"

"I can only guess who, and if it is him then he has a reason to want to, though he should have been here much earlier." She muttered under her breath Naruto heard but didn't ask. They went to the tower chatting about their training schedule, when they made it, they entered the room to see the Hokage and another man standing there.

Kurenai glared at the other man and Naruto assumed that he was the one she suspected, why did she not like him?

"Hello, Naruto-kun, this is Jiraiya he has asked to teach you during your break." The Third said.

"Why would one of the Sanin want to teach me?" Naruto inquired, making the now named Jiraiya and the Third slightly surprised.

"The Gaki knows of me, see Sensei, my greatness has been heard the next generation, though it is a shame I can't do my intro." Jiraiya said.

"He wants to train you to use the kyuubi's chakra." The third said.

"He isn't a jinchuuriki, why would he know?" Naruto asked.

"Well he is one of the best seal masters in the village so he can help." The Third said.

"You do know I opened the seal right?" Naruto asked, apparently they didn't by the shocked looks on their faces, in fairness he did tell no one but the fact that he had the key should have told them that the seal would be opened.

"What! But! How! When!" Asked everyone, he probably should have told someone but he kind of forgot to tell them.

"Well, I opened the seal, I used the key that I took and the night I stole the scroll." Naruto answered their questions leaving them even more gobsmacked.

"How have you not lost yourself to the kyuubi's evil nature?" Jiraiya asked, which caused Naruto to laugh at him.

"Kaa-chan isn't evil. What do you mean lose myself to Kaa-chans nature?" Naruto said between laughs.

"The kyuubi is evil. It has killed hundreds of ninja. It has destroyed villages; it is a monster." Jiraiya said, he was confused by his willingness to protect the kyuubi.

"What is your job? How many have you killed? How many villages did you try to destroy in the wars? It's a bit hypocritical to say that killing is wrong if you do it so much." Naruto said.

"Everything I did was to protect myself and my village." Jiraiya said sternly.

"And why do the bijuu fight." Naruto said causing the others to stop, "The one tailed made the desert, it then lived there and guarded its territory when the Suna nin attacked. Do you think that Kaa-chan didn't think the land of fire was home?"

"But it attacked people, it killed people before the Konoha became a village." Jiraiya said.

"People probably attacked Kaa-chan as soon as they saw Kaa-chan. Also so many of the humans tried to hunt Kaa-chan to prove they were the strongest."

"But it is just a mindless beast, it is just chakra given life, it is not sentient."

"Well, I talk to Kaa-chan, that alone should tell you the bijuu are conscious as for chakra given life, they are the reason you have chakra."

"What?"

"The sage of six paths story is true, the bijuu are his children."

"Then how can they be controlled by the sharingan?"

"They can't, that is propaganda by the first Hokage, he also could not 'tame' them like he claimed."

"Why do you call it 'Kaa-chan'? It clearly isn't your mother, it's a fox."

"Kaa-chan raised me since I was young, and it doesn't matter if Kaa-chan is a fox or not."

"I still don't like you talking to the kyuubi, I don't trust it, it should be sealed away from you."

"Why should I care about your opinion on the matter, you don't know anything on the matter, you aren't a jinchuuriki, you aren't my family and you certainly no expert on the subject."

"I'm your Godfather, and I am the closest thing to an expert on seals Konoha has."

"What!" Naruto yelled, "where have you been all of my life?"

"I was… busy." Jiraiya answered lamely.

"What! You abandoned me because you were busy?!"

"Well-"

Naruto stormed out of the room and left a saddened Jiraiya and Hokage. Kurenai followed him after glaring at the two of them. She caught up with him and tried to calm him down, they made it to an empty clearing. Naruto stood there for a minute before asking, "If he is my Godfather, who's my Godmother?"

"Naruto," Kurenai said, "Yugao is your Godmother, we thought you had died during the attack, we only found out on that night." At this Naruto stopped and looked conflicted.

"Why didn't she tell me?" Naruto asked.

"She was scarred you would do what you've done to this idiot here. She was scarred you would hate her and you would reject her. Please don't judge her too harshly, she has been terrified about losing you in any way. All three of us are." They settled into a silence for a minute. Naruto loved Yugao, he could never hate her, he was sad that she didn't tell him but understood why she did it.

"I don't want to go back; I just don't want to be near him."

"That's ok, I'll train you as much as I can, I'll see if I can find you a waterfall to train at."

"Thanks Nee-chan."

(Two weeks later)

Naruto was still training, he had nearly finished the waterfall splitting training, with the help of his shadow clones he could split nearly all of it but he wouldn't stop until he could split the whole waterfall in half without the clones. It may seem impossible but he would do it, he was interrupted from his training by Yugao, she appeared from a shunshin and headed towards him.

"Hey Nee-chan," he then saw her eyes were blotchy and tears were streaming down his face, "what's wrong what happened?"

"Hayate's been injured, he and his partner were found, his ANBU partner was dead but he survived barely, the only reason he's alive is he had a partner with him. It looked like he took most of the attack for him. How did you know?" She asked him quietly.

"How did I know what?" Naruto was confused.

"You know damn well what." She said and then grabbed him and pushed him up against a tree, "You knew the sand nin was dangerous, he was watching him when he was injured. He's in a coma because of it, so how did you know the sand nin would do something."

"Did you arrest him, the sand nin?" Naruto asked.

"No, but he has another guard, there wasn't enough evidence and attacking him would cause an international incident. That is not important, how did you know? You knew this would happen."

"I didn't, I guessed I didn-" He was cut off as Yugao pulled out her sword, her hands were shaking.

"Naruto, you have to tell me, I can tell when you're lying, you not saying could be considered illegal, you know something, now tell me!"

"Nee-chan I-"

"Don't 'Nee-chan' me, this is important, an ANBU is dead and my boyfriend is injured. Tell me how you know, or I will arrest you and have you sent to Ibiki for questioning." She then pointed the sword at him.

"P-p-l-lease Nee-chan calm down, put the sword down." Naruto said stuttering slightly.

"No Naruto, I have to, y-y-you know something dangerous to the village, you have to tell me. Hayate nearly died. I need to know what we're up against."

"He would be dead if I didn't tell you. I told you to try to help, I didn't know he would be hurt I never wanted that."

"Then tell me how you know, tell me everything! I nearly lost Hayate because you only told me a vague warning, tell me what's going on!"

"I can't, I can't tell you what's going on because I have no proof, you wouldn't have believed me if I told you what I know you would think I was a spy or something."

"Tell me now! I'll understand."

"Ok, the sound village and the sand will invade at the end of the chunin exams, Kabuto is a spy for Orochimaru who leads the sound village. They will use Garra and his bijuu to cause as much damage as possible, he will then trap the third and fight him one on one. He will use summons to cause damage and a genjutsu over the audience to catch them unaware, Kabuto will do this dressed as an ANBU."

"How do you know this? This can't be guesswork and Orochimaru didn't tell you this much. So how do you know this much?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Tell me how!" Yugao screamed. "Hayate could be fine if you told me this!"

"Yes and he would be dead if I didn't tell you." This caused Yugao to freeze, tears started anew. "I can't show you any proof but I can tell you that it is true. I can't tell you who told me either as you wouldn't trust me at all."

"You need to tell me, please I need to know, we need to plan."

"I have, why do you think I challenged Garra? I can take him while the invasion is going on, he will care more of our fight than destroying the village. That takes care of one of their biggest threat, the summons can be dealt with by Jiraiya and Orochimaru will be taken care of by the third."

"Who told you? I need a name."

"I can't tell you. You wouldn't believe me and they won't be able to help."

"Naruto, you need to tell me, the third needs to know, we need to be prepared. I need you to tell me!"

"I can't, I would give my life before that secret is exposed."

"Tell me!" Yugao shouted and then swung her sword at him. He dodged it but he still got a large gash on his arm. "Naruto!" Yugao screamed as she stopped looking angry and looked scared. Naruto looked terrified. "I'm sorry, are you ok?" Naruto backed away from her terror in his eyes. "Naruto I'm sorry."

"Stay back, stay away!" Naruto backed away further. He backed into a tree and Yugao followed him, she looked at his arm which was now bleeding.

"Calm down, I'll heal your arm." Naruto calmed slightly and gave her arm out but he was visibly shaking, "I'm sorry, I'm scared, I don't want to lose Hayate, I didn't mean to hurt you, I just, I want to know, I just don't want to lose anyone."

After Naruto calmed down he looked at her, "I can't tell you, I can't no matter what. I've told you all I know. Please just tell the Hokage to be prepared, the invasion will be started by Garra, after Garra goes full bijuu Kabuto will cast a genjutsu." He then left quickly, leaving Yugao scarred that she forced her Godson out of her life.

(At the end of the month)

Naruto was in front of the exam stadium; he was about to enter the exam. He had mastered the wind chakra training but he still needed his clones to split the waterfall but he was down to a clone per three meters of waterfall. He had managed to make his jutsu more powerful and had succeeded in making it explode in the end he could now find the arrow easier also.

He had his bow and a quiver on his back, the rest of his outfit was the same. He was preparing for the invasion; he had set clones around the perimeter with bows at the ready to help with the invasion. Once the Hokage was informed of his knowledge, he made sure that all jonin and chunin level ninja knew and were prepared.

Now that everyone knew of the invasion it posed little threat, everyone had a part to play and only the genin hadn't been informed of the oncoming invasion. Naruto knew his part; the others had agreed to let him face Garra as he said that otherwise there would be too much collateral.

Naruto slowly entered the arena to hear the sound of the crowds cheering, he was happy with this, now he had to just beat Neji and wait for the invasion to start to fight Garra. For now, he would enjoy the attention being given to him.

He saw nearly all of the competitors were there, the ones missing were the boy from sound and Sauske, maybe he took up Kakashi's habit for being late but the boy from sound. He had no idea where he was as the tournament would start soon, the Uchiha may be given an extension but the sound boy was likely to be disqualified.

He and Neji's fight was going to start the exams, he would try not to end it too quickly. The Hyuuga would be using his clans fighting style, which was nearly useless at range unless he learned the air palm but that was too high level even for this 'prodigy'. He may have spied on Neji's training a little bit and found that he had learned the rotation which considering Neji's eyes were 'all seeing' made Naruto laugh slightly.

As long as he kept his distance he would be fine, the Hyuuga had become complacent with their skills, they believed that their technique could not be beat. That was a dumb move on their part, he was a jinchuuriki, if worst came to worst he could reopen his tenketsu with his Kaa-chans chakra.

The Hyuuga were completely useless against jinchuuriki, Roshi had once told him of a foolish Hyuuga who tried to block his tenketsu whilst knowing he was the jinchuuriki to Son Goku. Needless to say the man lost his hands when Roshi used his lava armour, it made him wonder why they hadn't developed new techniques with the byakugan, their ability was wasted when they didn't use their ability to see for miles in every direction.

Such a shame, such a bloodline when used in the hand of say an archer would be amazing, if Naruto were to use it with his arrow jutsu he would be an unrivalled assassin, if it were used by a medic they would be able to heal so much more. A shame but he wasn't planning on stealing their eyes anytime soon.

The examiner was here now, the Hokage had a short speech before going back to the Kage box, he sat next to who Naruto knew, and now so did the Hokage, as Orochimaru dressed as the Kazekage. It turned out Shukaku could tell from the beginning when Orochimaru took over, Garra didn't say anything because he quite frankly couldn't care.

After the Hokage learned that the sand was tricked into this attack he was willing to forgive them, he ordered that were possible only capture sand ninja or to avoid killing at least. The sound ninja however got no such mercy and they were allowed to murder indiscriminately.

The examiner, a man named Genma who was taking over due to Hayate's 'accident', told everyone except himself and Neji to leave the arena. They stared each other down and then Genma told them to begin, they stared for a moment before Neji smirked and got into the Hyuuga's stance, Naruto took his bow off his back and got an arrow ready to be fired.

With that the finals of the chunin exams began.

(At Artemis' camp)

The Hunters were worried, in the past few years their mistress had been acting strange, she had seemed distracted and spent more time by herself than the others had seen before. They had also noticed a strange change in the other gods they met at any point, some of them would show up randomly and talk privately with their mistress.

The hunters had also heard their mistress muttering what seemed to be a countdown of years, the countdown was now only a few years away and they were all curious of what would happen at that time. None of them had asked what it meant or what would happen when they reached the deadline.

They also heard her muttering what sounded like names, she sometimes spoke in a language that sounded vaguely like the languages from the lands to the east. They had been there hunting on occasion.

They trusted their mistress judgement, she had saved them and they owed her their lives. They all came to a silent agreement not to mention anything to her about the matter she deserved her privacy and she would tell them if it was important.


	10. Chapter 10

(Chunin exam arena)

Naruto stood facing Neji his bow drawn, he was ready for Neji to lunge at him which he did. He tried to block Naruto's tenketsu but Naruto moved further back, he then fired an arrow at Neji without applying chakra to it. This was a test to see if Neji could see the agile projectile with his doujutsu, he backhanded the arrow to the side and came at Naruto again. Naruto dodged another series of strikes and then aimed once again at Neji, he fired but this time it was much faster, it was once again hit out of the way but Neji looked in pain. He saw that there was a cut from the arrow passed his hand, it was small but it's very existence annoyed Neji greatly it proved that he had been injured by this weakling. Again, Neji shot forward only to be met with Naruto meeting him halfway, he aimed a low punch for his stomach which was dodged. Neji replied by striking at Naruto's chest with a glowing hand, Naruto dodged once again and swiped at him with his bow. Naruto missed and was hit straight in the chest.

He smirked and whispered, "well, wasn't that a nice distraction, ne?"

Neji's eyes widened as Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving Neji unbalanced, this showed another Naruto with his bow aimed at him he heard Naruto call the name of his jutsu, "don-teki gaishō (blunt trauma)."

Naruto then fired his arrow. The arrow was normal but at the tip it seemed to do the opposite of what arrows were meant to do, it had a smooth surface about an inch in diameter, Neji saw the chakra build up on the tip of the arrow, it fired at him just slower than the first arrow he fired at him. Neji couldn't dodge the attack, he decided it was time to unveil his technique. He was just about to rotate, when he felt something wrap around his leg, he looked down at his foot and saw the arrow Naruto had fired earlier it transformed into a Naruto who grabbed his legs.

If he hadn't been too arrogant to assume that Naruto had no plan, he had planned everything up to this point but how did he know of the rotation. He couldn't dodge and he didn't want to try to hit something with that much built up chakra, the arrow was right in front of him now. He could do nothing now. The arrow hit him and he felt agony, the name pretty much summed it up. He flew backwards and hit the wall behind him leaving a cracked wall and an unconscious Hyuuga, while he was still conscious he had noticed how the chakra moved just before it hit him. The chakra built up in the tip flew outwards in a circular motion, it then seemed to create a wall of wind which, due to the original speed from the arrow, hit him with a very fast moving concussive force.

The arrow itself still carried on and hit him in the stomach. It stuck in the middle of his stomach and stayed there for a minute before falling off, Neji's unconscious form crumpled to the floor leaving a stunned audience. The match was over relatively quickly and Naruto had only shown two jutsu, he had clearly planned out his strategy and from his match he was basically guaranteed chunin for beating a prodigy so quickly and efficiency.

The crowd then slowly started to clap which eventually led to cheering, Naruto could see the glares many of the audience were giving him but he failed to care. He had grown up with worse, it was quite sad when he realised that most of the people cheering him were from other villages who had no idea who and what he was. He saw his team and his Nee-chan's cheering him, the rest of the Konoha eleven who didn't make it to the final cheered him and quite a large amount of ninja of Konoha were cheering too but they looked more neutral to him. He looked to the Kage box and saw the Hokage smiling down at him, he saw his 'godfather' looking proud too.

He didn't particularly like the man and that hadn't changed over the month since he had met him, the man was an idiot he decided. The fact that he was a strong idiot didn't change things, he didn't hate him he just disliked him for abandoning him to hell. He hadn't talked with him over the month after meeting him due to his training. He was happy about his training over the month, not only had he mastered wind chakra to a point, but his Sensei had taught him a few helpful hints, he had given away very little of his arsenal in that match. He needed to make sure he kept surprises for Garra, he was the one he really had to defeat in the end. Neji was just the warm up.

The next match was supposed to be Sauske versus Garra as apparently the sound nin had disappeared, this fight had been pushed back to give Sauske time to get here. Kankuro then forfeited his match causing the crowd to get restless. When Shikamaru looked ready to do the same Naruto pushed him off the balcony and he started his match against Temari. The match was very interesting as both strategic minds fought to overcome the situation, the jutsu Temari used interested Naruto greatly and gave him some ideas for new jutsu using his arrows, he was wandering if he could use a series of arrows and wind chakra to make a tornado like she used her fan to do. In the end Shikamaru surrendered after proving to be the better strategist, Temari was put into the next round against Shino.

Now they were waiting for Sauske to show up to fight a rather impatient Garra, the sand siblings looked uneasy like the other citizens of sand who showed up. Naruto was very annoyed at both Kakashi and Sauske for their lateness, he wanted to get his fight with Garra over with. Just as the examiner was about to say they were too late they showed up in the middle of the stadium. Soon the match began, Sauske started by throwing kunai. Naruto nearly face palmed, either he forgot about the sand or he just wanted to make sure that he was the exception to the rule.

He then continued by punching the sand clone, just as he was about to lose his arm he smirked and disappeared in a burst of speed. Naruto was surprised by this, he clearly copied Lee's moves but Naruto knew that wouldn't be enough. Garra had spent a month specifically preparing for him, his arrows were much faster than anything Sauske could pull off, if Garra wasn't so prepared for their fight he would have probably been caught off guard like he had against Lee but he had been training for faster.

Sauske, who thought Garra wouldn't have improved, found himself caught in a cage of sand, he was surprised when he tried to punch it he nearly broke his hand. "Surrender." Came Garras voice, but not from the Garra in front of him, he turned and saw another Garra as the one he had previously been looking at melted to sand.

Naruto smirked as he realised: one Garra acted similarly to the way his fight went and two he had given Sauske the chance to surrender, it seemed he took his promise seriously to not hurt others while here. "How?" Sauske spat, he was so surprised someone beat him so easily.

"I was over there, you were attacking my clone, I knew you copied the green one so I knew where you would go and I imprisoned you there. You were too predictable. Now surrender or die." Garra said causing the sand to tighten.

"I surrender." Sauske muttered, Garra then freed him of his sand and left the arena.

The next match between Shino and Temari was over quickly, Shino gave up when Temari blasted most of his bugs away, he lost too many bugs and gave up on the third blast. Naruto now had to fight against Garra, those who knew what these two contained were nervous, if either of them got out of control the other would likely follow suit. Everyone was worried about this even those involved in the invasion knew that two rampaging bijuu was a bad idea.

They were worried enough setting Garra lose as they had no control over him, no one knew what would happen if Naruto rampaged, it could be a repeat of what happened all those years ago. Naruto and Garra were staring each other down, they had both entered the mindscape and were having a chat before their fight, they stood facing each other in the real world but a more interesting sight was occurring in the mindscape.

"Hey Garra, no hard feelings for when you lose right?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"You still think you will win? I will win and I will prove that we are stronger without them."

"Ok, ok, in any case good luck."

"You too, you'll definitely need it."

"Is there any way we could watch this fight?" They turned and saw the other Jinchuuriki had joined the mindscape.

"It is quite important for us." Fu finished.

"Why would it be important to you?" Naruto asked.

"Garra isn't the only one who thinks you should give up on the humans," Fu said, "this fight may get you to give up on them and we want to see you when you realise they will make you weak."

"Since when were you so vocal on our views on humanity." Naruto asked, sure he knew that most of his brothers and sisters didn't like the humans but he didn't know they hated them.

"Nearly all of us here hate the humans, only you B and Yugito don't hate them like the rest of us." Hana said, he was surprised by this.

"But, Yagura-neechan, you're the Mizukage, you rule over them." Naruto exclaimed.

"That just means I am in charge of them, there are a few that have some of my respect but that is only as ninja, I don't like them for the most part but as their ruler I do what is best for them." Yagura replied sadly, it was true some of her subordinates had earned her respect but she didn't count Mei as a human. She had suffered for her bloodlines and because of that Yagura considered her an honorary Jinchuuriki. She was the only one who had been friends with her during her childhood and as such led a similar life, she lost her parents when the civilians 'purged' them. She then helped Yagura and earned here the hatred of many citizens, all in all she considered her close to being a Jinchuuriki due to this she was a trusted friend. The others knew this and accepted her friendship due to Yagura hating most of humanity like them, they could agree that there might by exceptions but they would not trust any of them unless they proved themselves.

"B, Yugito you're the only ones with me on this?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, we don't hate humans mostly because the current Raikage is B's adopted brother, because of that we didn't face the stigma the rest of you suffered. At least I didn't, B protected me when I was much younger, before he was adopted into Ay's family. Even then, Ay practically adopted me too." Yugito said.

"So, the rest of you are hoping that I lose?" Naruto asked sadly.

"Sorry, but you need to see that we are stronger without them, we're sorry." Roshi said.

"Well, three against six seems a bit unfair." Naruto said annoyed, this caused the jinchuuriki to shuffle about and look embarrassed. "What?" Naruto asked confused.

 **"Well, it's more fifteen to three, Naruto-kun."** Came the voice of Shukaku.

"What?!" Naruto cried out in shock, he was against the bijuu.

 **"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but we agree with them, the humans shouldn't be trusted, we barely trust Yagura-chan with her friend, the only reason we consent with their relationship is because she knows some of what it is to be a Jinchuuriki."** Isobu said.

"But why am I different, I'm friends with them and my sister's help take care of me." Naruto said.

"They don't care about you; they are only caring for you because they cared for your parents." Roshi said sadly.

"That's not true! They care about me, I'm like a brother to them, they helped where they could." Naruto yelled. In the background, he could have sworn he heard that voice again, 'lies' it whispered.

 **"Now is not the time for this, Roshi. Naruto, please just be careful, I don't trust the humans either, they are liars and have no respect for anyone."** Kurama said.

"Not you too, kaa-chan, but what about Tou-san, you said you respected him when he was here, so you had to have trusted him."

 **"I did, look what happened, they attacked me, and he sealed me into you knowing full well what would happen."** His Kaa-chan said.

"But that doesn't mean they're all bad. Just because some are bad doesn't mean all of them are." Naruto said.

"Now is not the time." Garra interrupted. "We have a fight to be getting on with, if you want to watch the fight find some way of doing so."

"How can we do that?" Utakata asked.

 **"If you'll allow us access to your senses we will be able to watch the fight from both of your perspectives."** Saiken answered, **"this will only let us see and hear what the both of you hear and see, adding more senses will be more irritating than anything, do you agree to this."**

Both Garra and Naruto agreed. Suddenly two screens appeared and they could hear the noises from the outside world, Naruto and Garra re-entered the outside world. The blinked out of the mindscape and stared at each other, the crowd were murmuring, it seemed that they had been staring at each other for a while, suddenly Naruto blurred out of existence, he shunshined to the other side of the arena and pulled his bow out, he notched an arrow and fired it at Garra, who's sand caught it before letting it drop to the ground. Naruto shunshined to the wall and ran around on it firing volleys of arrows at him every few seconds. The arrows themselves were speeding up which caused Naruto to smirk and Garra to frown. Naruto then created ten kage bunshins which all did as he did and fired arrows at Garra who was starting to have trouble now, his sand was keeping up but some of the arrows were making it past his shield.

Eventually one of the arrows managed to penetrate his shield and hit Garra in the arm, this resulted in that Garra melting into sand. Suddenly the entire arena erupted into sand, and all of it flew at the clones of Naruto crushing them and dispelling them. The real Garra suddenly appeared in the centre of the arena, he looked around for his brother, he couldn't have died in that attack. He couldn't find him anywhere using his sand, he used it to feel out the entire arena, no one could be found.

"Where are you Naruto?" Garra yelled out.

He was suddenly surprised when a foot impacted with his face as Naruto appeared. He kicked Garra in the chest before the sand reacted and he then made a clone which threw him at the wall. The sand missed him and he stuck himself to the wall of the arena again. The sand came at him again like a wave and hit the wall, he was already gone. Naruto managed to jump to the other side of the arena and he then created fifty clones who spread out and fired their cloned arrows at him which all were blocked once again by his sand. This time though Naruto made sure to dodge the large amount of sand and none of the Naruto's were dispelled, this continued until all the Narutos fired at once, fifty arrows all aimed at Garra and one managed to break through his guard and hit him in the shoulder.

Garra's sand armour started to crack at that and he grunted, he looked down at his arm and saw a small amount of blood come from the wound. The arrow didn't sink too far into his skin and ultimately only gave him a small wound, but to Garra it surprised him. He then smirked, "Come on Naruto is that it? All this time and only a small cut?"

"Well Garra how about we step this up then Garra?" All the Naruto's said before each of them pulled out arrows identical to the one he used on Neji, Garra's eyes widened at this, he saw what happened when the arrow hit Neji and didn't know if his sand could handle the blunt force of the jutsu. "Don-teki gaishō (blunt trauma)" Came the cry of all of the Naruto's, Garra watched as they all fired their arrows at once and Garra realised they formed a perfect circle around him. He quickly forced his sand to form a sphere around him and then made it as dense as possible, he felt the impact of all fifty arrows hit the sphere and from the inside of the sphere it felt like his insides turn to jelly.

Garra threw up and realised that the sphere had holes in it where all the arrows must have impacted, they all left indentations where they originally struck and spread out after that. In the end, his shield resembled a sponge, the sand got to work rebuilding the shield and filled all the holes. Garra quickly made a third eye outside the shield to see what was going on, he decided it was time to show Naruto how powerful learning from the other Jinchuuriki he was.

Naruto was unprepared for what happened, he assumed that Garra would have been learning to speed up his sand to catch his arrows or find ways to catch him. What he didn't expect was for him to use a jutsu very similar to his sister, Yagura's, coral. The sand became sharper until it resembled the coral and, as his clones found out, if he were to stand on it he would be stuck there resulting in him being an easy target. Naruto quickly looked into Garra's eyes and re-entered the mind scape with him to see his grinning face and his siblings looking even more confident that he would win.

"You taught him how to do that?" Naruto yelled, he assumed they supported Garra not actually trained him.

"Yes, we all wanted to prove that we were all more powerful than the humans, teaching him how to do jutsu similar to ours with his sand was just one way of doing that." Yagura said.

"All of you?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes," Fu answered, "it was hard to translate most of our techniques to his sand but he has a basic understanding of how to use his sand like we can naturally use our bijuu powers."

"Wait, can he grow wings like you then?" Naruto asked amazed.

"You'll have to find out Naruto-kun." Fu answered mischievously as she grinned.

"Are you OK, with this?" Naruto asked the bijuu.

 **"Yes, whose idea do you think it was?"** Chomei answered somehow sharing the Jinchuurikis grin. With that they returned to the real world, and Naruto and his clones spent an awful lot of time avoiding the sand again, he could barely fire his arrows at this point and when he did it was again blocked by a circle of sand that looked normal, that gave Naruto an idea, his defensive sand was now much less than his offensive and turning the sand into its coral consistency seemed to take time breaking back down into regular sand.

That meant he wouldn't be able to defend as well, Naruto suddenly grinned and jumped up as high as he could, he was now a couple hundred foot in the air he made a seal and a poof of smoke blocked out the sky from the watchers, the sky was full of clones. Garra gasped as they all aimed their bows and fired down on him. He made a large circle of sand to block all of the arrows and they all hit, suddenly he was hit by three arrows from the side, he turned and saw three clones with their bows held out. Naruto had distracted him and his sand was dealing with the bigger threat so it couldn't help. The arrows were mostly blocked by his armour but like the first arrow to hit him it broke it slightly and he bled slightly. A huge group of Naruto's fell to the ground and landed on his sand creating a poof leaving only one who jumped to the safety of a wall by kicking off a clone.

He was sweating slightly, as was Garra. Suddenly Garra smirked and did the hand seals for a jutsu Naruto didn't recognise, he then breathed a huge wave of fire which surprised Naruto, what surprised him even more was it was aimed at his sand, why would he do that, all he would do was make… glass! Could he control it like his sand if so what would he do with it, the jutsu wasn't big but it caused some of the sand to become glass which then began breaking up into clumps. What would he do with that?

He then started to make it fly about causing it to catch off the light and refract it around the arena until beams of light were aimed at Naruto blinding him slightly. He realised this was his plan, distract him with the light and then attack him. Fu must have taught him to do that, maybe he couldn't grow wings but he Fu could use glass like Fu's scale powder. He then heard a whooshing noise and moved out of the way of the beams of light quickly, memories were coming from his remaining clones, who were also blinded, showing they were dispelled.

He didn't know what had happened but he managed to get his vision back in time to see Garra flying at him, wait flying? Sure, enough Garra had what appeared to be sand wrapped around his chest before branching into two making a pair of angel like wings coming from his back.

"Now that is just ridiculous." Naruto said, "why don't you just stand on a pile and have it float, you just look ridiculous like that." Naruto was close to laughing and Garra looked annoyed.

He then flew quickly at Naruto and called out, "Suna shuriken," creating shuriken out of his sand and firing them at Naruto much faster than they had any right being. He dodged them quickly and managed to make it to the other side of the wall. Garra just hovered in the middle of the arena his wings flapping every few seconds.

"So, shall we step it up even more?" Naruto asked causing Garra to grin like a maniac and nod in response. Naruto then pulled out a strange looking arrow and notched it, its tip looked like a cone but it spiralled into its point and looked like it wrapped around itself as it reached the shaft. At the base where it would meet the bow string it was segmented and it looked like one part could stay still while the other span. "Uzumaku kaze no pointo (point of spiralling winds)" his notched arrow started to move like a drill and he smirked before letting go of the arrow sending it at Garra at tremendous speeds.

Garra dodged to the right but it hit his wing and… got stuck? It appeared the drill part span in the opposite direction to the way it would enter. He looked to Naruto who smirked before forming the snake seal. Garra heard a sizzling and saw that there were several explosive tags wrapped around the shaft, he gasped and the explosive went of destroying his wing and sending him flying to the ground. His arm was burnt but the bijuu chakra in his system would heal it, he could already feel it begin healing but Shukaku took the longest of all the bijuu to heal damage which was why he had his sand defence.

His arm would be out for the time being so he would have to rely on his left arm for now, he decided it was time for him to pull out another trick taught to him by Yagura. The reason she was so powerful was because she was able to use her bijuu's chakra to a much higher level than the others only rivalled by B and Yugito. The thing all of them had in common was their ability to use a partial transformation without entering the bijuu cloak. Garra, before the month was able to do a variation of this as he could transform fully into Shukaku but couldn't use it to his full potential.

He could release Shukaku but that left him vulnerable on top of the bijuu's head. His partial transformation only used to work when he was stopped entering a full transformation and it lead to him slowly going full bijuu. However, Yagura had taught him, over the month, how to use the partial transformation correctly like she and B could do. Yugito still hadn't learned to do it properly but she wasn't working on it as she had already mastered the full transformation and could do it faster than any of the other Jinchuuriki so she didn't feel like she needed it as much.

Naruto was once again on the wall when suddenly an arm flew at him, he recognised that particular arm as being that of Shukaku's. Upon that realisation the invasion began and all hell broke loose. There was smoke in the Kage booth and many of the jonin from Konoha destroyed the sand and sound nin who thought they had the element of surprise. Fights began and Garra, once he realised the invasion had started left the arena to the forest outside the village he was quickly followed by Naruto.

Kabuto upon realising his genjutsu was stopped before it fully worked turned and saw Kurenai, Anko and a cat masked ANBU staring him down, he realised he was caught and was about to fight them, before anything could happen an arrow hit him in the chest knocking him back hitting the wall. He saw that a Naruto clone had appeared and was pointing his bow at him, because he didn't see the attack coming his technique didn't work and he could only start healing now.

"Well then you are going to be broken." Anko said gleefully licking a kunai. Kakashi had gathered many of the genin from the rookie nine who he could find, he saw Naruto follow Garra and believed he couldn't handle him.

"Ok, Shikamaru, Sakura, Sauske and Shino, I want you four to go give Naruto back up, try to help him fight Garra, he won't be able to take him alone." Kakashi said.

"Sensei, are you sure that is a good idea? Naruto and Garra are on a different level and we won't be able to find them." Shikamaru asked, Kakashi then summoned a small pug and asked him to track Naruto.

"Follow Pakun, he will lead you to Naruto, help in any way you can." The genin followed the dog and managed to end up in the forest outside Konoha.

"Kakashi, where did you send them?" Asuma asked, he had seen them all run off.

"To help Naruto." Kakashi answered causing Asuma to go pale.

"You sent them to fight Garra, what is the matter with you? They'll be killed!" Asuma shouted.

"Naruto went off to fight him, they will help him."

"You idiot, Naruto was supposed to fight Garra, he's been ordered to. Apparently, they came to some sort of agreement where they would fight one on one. In exchange for this Garra promised to leave the village and take their fight elsewhere so there was less collateral. He might think we've broken our deal and attack the village."

"Wait. We knew about the invasion?" Kakashi was shocked.

"Yes, you would too if you returned to the village at any point. Hokage-sama informed us all to avoid Naruto's fight as it would be a fight between demons." Kakashi paled as he realised he may have sent those kids to their deaths, and possibly doomed Konoha.

(Meanwhile with them)

"There is a team following us." Shino informed.

"I'll stay behind." Shikamaru informed them splitting off from the group. They soon came across Kankuro and Temari who appeared to be tailing the two as well, Shino started fighting Kankuro while Temari took off to catch up with Garra.

Eventually she managed to see them as they stared at each other from a tree branch, they both turned to face her and she became terrified. Soon Sakura and Sauske caught up and landed beside her looking at the two Jinchuuriki.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked the three of them, the Hokage told him that their fight wouldn't be interrupted.

"We came as backup; Naruto you can't possibly face him alone." Sakura said.

"You can't be here, you won't survive if we go all out, leave all of you." Naruto said before turning back to Garra.

"Y-y-you're going all out." Temari stuttered out.

"Yes, now leave." Garra replied, she then turned to the Uchiha and Haruno.

"You should listen to his advice and leave, if Garra goes all out then everything here will be destroyed, if that kid could possibly match that then we should run as far away as possible." Temari told the duo before running to a safe distance to watch the fight.

"Now leave, I don't want either of you hurt." Naruto said.

"Dobe, how could you possibly take him on?" Sauske asked.

"Trade secret. Now leave." Naruto answered.

"Enough of this," Garra interrupted, "if they interrupt they die now let's begin." Garra then grinned and both of his arm became that of Shukaku.

"Did she teach you how to do a partial transformation." Naruto asked.

"Yes, her coral wasn't all she taught, the others know how to it to some affect now too." Garra replied with a smirk.

"So, I'm the only one who hasn't learned?"

"Yes, though Utakata can't do it well. You will learn if you join us though."

"Well that's hurtful that you wouldn't just teach me because of kaa-chan." They quickly entered the mindscape and came face to face with the others, they all looked a bit uncomfortable except B and Yugito.

"You really wouldn't teach me the transformation if I don't agree with your beliefs?" Naruto asked.

"Sorry, we just well…" Yagura trailed off.

"Don't worry after your fight we'll teach you the proper way Naruto-kun." Yugito said.

"What do you mean the proper way?" Yagura asked slightly offended.

"The way you do it basically is just an extended variation on the cloak. The way we do it allows us to actually become a bijuu for a while, or at least our consciousness is, we can then let Gyuki or Matatabi take control. Garras original version of this is close but he is left vulnerable." This shocked the other Jinchuuriki, they thought they could use the bijuu chakra to its fullest extent but Yagura did realise that when she used it, it was just a more controlled version of the cloak. She thought that is what B and Yugito did too.

"How?" She asked.

"It's complicated, we have a temple on an island where we go… it's very complicated. You two go back to your fight while we explain it."

The two of them left and went back to their fight, Garra used the reach Shukaku's arms gave him to try to grab Naruto, when he dodged he fired some Suna shuriken at him which he dodged again. Naruto fired an arrow but it did nothing to Garra. Garra then started to change his entire body to make a smaller tailless Shukaku. He then started to fire off more Shuriken. There were now hundreds of the shuriken flying at Naruto who just dodged them quickly. Garra then smirked which looked scary on the smaller Shukaku, he then grew a tail and sand erupted from the ground, it started to swirl around him and Naruto realised what Garra was doing and backed away.

There was a puff of smoke and suddenly Shukaku was standing there, Garra was on its forehead smirking down at Naruto. He was still in control of the sand body of Shukaku.

"Dammit Garra don't make me do that jutsu, I don't want to kill you, if I use it you will either die or be injured badly." Naruto screamed.

"I'd like to see you try from there Naruto." Garra replied before using Shukaku's massive body to fire off huge air bullets, Naruto barely managed to make it out of the way.

"Fine then Garra, if you want that, you will get it." Naruto muttered before pulling out his bow, he looked in his quiver to see he had four arrows left, one of them had a blunt edge and another had the spiralled edge, the final two had his original arrows with a small tip but it was impossibly sharp. He first notched his blunt arrow and building up the chakra necessary, it took a few seconds to do but he finally fired it off at Garra, who saw it coming and managed to raise one of Shukaku's arms. With a yell of, "Don-teki gaishō (blunt trauma)," the arrow hit about halfway up his forearm, the arm exploded into sand on impact letting that rain down. Naruto then notched the spiralled arrow he then put the required wind chakra into it causing it to twist the opposite to the last time he used this technique, this would allow it to drill through his target.

He yelled, "Uzumaku kaze no pointo (point of spiralling winds)," he then fired the arrow, this time Garra brought his other arm up to guard against this one. The arrow unlike last time burrowed into the arm and the tip came out the other side, much slower, it stabbed into Garra's thigh and he screamed in pain. He quickly removed the tip and gasped, he threw it down to the ground below him, blood was dripping down his leg onto Shukaku's head. "Garra," Naruto shouted, "give up now, I've won, I don't want to hurt you anymore and you're getting tired, now aren't you?" It was true Garra had been using chakra intensive techniques constantly for the entire fight he was nearly out, he was at the point where he couldn't repair Shukaku's arms if they were damaged even more.

"I won't lose Naruto; I will prove it to you." He yelled back.

"Then I'm sorry." Naruto said before putting his hand in the snake seal causing Shukaku's arm to explode, the arrow he had used would detach the tip if it burrowed through something. It was something he made to deal with Shukaku's sand, the shaft, which was embedded in the sand destroyed the arm completely causing it to collapse. Garra was now unarmed. Naruto notched one of the last arrows he had and aimed at Garra, "last chance, this will hurt a lot when it hits, just give up now." Naruto said.

"No, I will win, I can't be beaten by you now." Garra said.

"Then I'm sorry, brother." Naruto whispered the last part. He then used his first technique and whispered its name, "Musei hikō (silent flight)" he then fired the arrow and it seemed to disappear. To everyone watching it was as if the arrow just vanished, suddenly Garra screamed in pain as he realised there was a hole in his shoulder. It hurt so much that Shukaku started to crumble and he began to fall, before he landed Naruto caught him. He gently brought him down to the ground and set him lying down, he then lowered himself down and laid down beside him.

He too was quite tired, the constant use of high level had Naruto tired too. They both sat there before as one they entered the mind scape. The other Jinchuuriki stared in shock as the victor was clear, Naruto had defeated Garra.

"H-h-how?" Fu asked, she was so sure that Naruto would lose to Garra, he had never learned any of the skills the other Jinchuuriki had, everything he learned came from the humans. They had all taught Garra how to use some of their techniques with his sand and he still lost, how?

"I learned from the humans, I then took everything they taught me as far as I could take it, the technique I just used was what inspired me to use my bow. It originally was a training technique with a rapier to train my wind chakra, it was human made, there are many strong humans, if there weren't we wouldn't be here. They may not be able to reach our level but we can't afford to be arrogant with our power as their power is nothing to laugh at." B and Yugito just grinned. The other Jinchuuriki looked confused and shocked, they were becoming arrogant and that made them slightly annoyed. The bijuu were silent but looked slightly surprised at his wisdom.

"B-b-but we can't trust them, they hate us." Fu said sadly.

"Don't trust them all, but understand that there are ones that will help us, most of them are just afraid, you don't need to forgive them or forget what they've done just give the nice ones a chance. Mei is an example of this, so are my sisters and my team. Just give them a chance." Naruto said. "And Garra, give your brother and sister a chance, they do care for you, if they didn't then they wouldn't have come after you to help. Try to be nice to them, now I've got a job to do." Naruto then left the mindscape with all the current residents having something to think about.

(With Artemis)

Currently Artemis was going through a crisis, it seemed that she was starting to despise men again, seeing what they did was making her hate them more and more. She had just rescued a young girl from an abusive father, when she had arrived the girl's mother was dead on the floor and the father was about to do the same to his daughter before she stopped him.

'But Minato wasn't like that and neither will Naruto.' Kushina said.

Recently Kushina was becoming less her and more another person, she didn't hate men by default but rather thought of them in the same way she did women, there were some good and some bad in both. Artemis however was different, she hated them all, Minato was a great man but he sacrificed her son.

'And what about him, is he evil.' She stopped at that, Naruto he was her son, he was different, or was he? What if he was like the rest of them, what if he was a rapist? what if he abused women? maybe he was sexist like all the other pigs.

'If you can't hear something wrong with that sentence then you're an idiot dattebane!'

"Be quiet, you are wrong, they are all pigs." She whispered to herself.

'Listen to yourself. That doesn't matter though, Naruto is our son, he won't be like that, he was the perfect baby, he will be the perfect man.'

"But what if he isn't, what if he's like the others?"

'Then what? Could you honestly bring yourself to hate him? Could you hate our baby?'

"No! Yes! I don't know!" She yelled, clutching her head.

'Remember how he looked, remember how he looked with his cute whiskers, remember his big blue eyes, could you ever hate that?'

"No! But he won't be that, he can never be that! Not again. We lost that part of his life."

'Then you will love him regardless.'

"How can you be sure? How do you know?"

'I don't, but I could never hate him and I'm you. If I can't hate him, you won't be able to.'

"I hate Minato; you still care for him we are different."

'I'm sure you do, but I know deep down you miss him.'

Suddenly a scary thought came to Artemis, "w-w-w-h-h-what if he hates us-me?" She asked.

'He won't, h-he can't, we're his mother and nothing's going to change that.'

"But what if he, what if he doesn't want us? What if he was adopted? What if he has a mother? Could we take him away from her?"

'He'll understand. B-b-besides, Hiruzen wouldn't let him get adopted, or rather the council wouldn't let Minato's son be adopted.'

"But what if-"

'Calm down, he'll love us, he is our son nothing can change that. He'll love us and we'll love him back no matter what. Trust me, it will be fine when we meet him.'


	11. Chapter 11

(With Naruto)

Naruto was currently rushing back to the village, he left a clone with Garra, he also knew that Garra's sister was nearby, Sauske and Sakura were also there, he left his clone to explain the situation to the three of them. His clone would then help Temari find Kankuro and if the clone wasn't dispelled would help them on the journey back to sand. He himself was going to help the rest of the village after taking some arrows off of his clones, once the Hokage knew what he could do he bought Naruto several hundred arrows for his clones to use in the defence of the village.

He had picked strategic spots and waited for the invasion before killing sound nin and knocking out sand nin, some of the clones had dispelled but he made one hundred of them. So far about seventy had dispelled overall. He didn't concentrate on the memories as he was busy fighting Garra but now though he realised that the invasion was over. They had won, the only fight still continuing was between the Hokage and Orochimaru and due to the purple barrier, no one could enter, he made it in front of the barrier and waited for the third to win.

He heard Orochimaru scream and saw the barrier break down as five people ran away, he looked around for the third and found him. He was on the ground not moving, he was dead, he turned and saw Orochimaru leaving with his minions. He had tears in his eyes, the third was the first person to be nice to him and treat him like a human. He may have lied to him; he may have been partially responsible for his mistreatment but he treated him like a human. He saw Orochimaru being held by one of his minions, he pulled out his last arrow and threw teary eyes fired it right at Orochimarus head.

He pumped some of his Kaa-chans chakra into the arrow. The snakes head exploded in a tornado of wind, suddenly his body reappeared out of the corpse, he looked to be in agony but his bodyguard picked him up and carried him. The ANBU tried to follow but they were stopped by webbing. Naruto turned back to the thirds body and cried, he hadn't actually told him that he didn't care that he lied, the last time he talked to him was purely professional, he just broke down and cried. The funeral for all lost in the invasion was a sad affair, only a few ninja and civilians died in this invasion because of their knowledge beforehand, the Hokage was the biggest death and his funeral caused many to break down into tears.

The funeral was very solemn with a public event for all the civilians and ninja who weren't close to the Hokage could pay their respects, Naruto and Asuma helped comfort Konohamaru who now had no one but them. Naruto swore he would kill that snake, and many of the others had similar promises. Naruto had felt that it was all his fault, maybe if he had said to the old man not to take on Orochimaru alone it would have ended differently, maybe if he had sent some of his clones to help him he wouldn't have died. He learned from one of the ANBU watching that he had fought the previous two Hokage and Orochimaru at the same time, Orochimaru resurrected them.

Then the third took away Orochimaru's ability to do hand seals by taking his arms away permanently, this would make it easier for Naruto to kill him. For now, he had been called by Jiraiya to help him on a mission. They were going to find the next Hokage.

"Well then pervert, where are we going to find this new Hokage?" Naruto asked as they were on the road to the nearest town.

"We will head to Tanzaku Gai to find her. On the way, I will teach you some jutsu." Jiraiya replied.

"What sort of jutsu?"

"Your father's original technique, the rasengan."

"When will we begin?"

"You can practice the first step while we walk." Jiraiya then handed Naruto a water balloon, "what you must do is burst the balloon using your chakra by making a ball with it." He gave an example and the balloon burst.

"Now you try." Naruto then attempted it, he was having trouble with it but kept trying, he eventually figured out his problem was he only rotated it one way, he figured out how to rotate it two ways as they reached a small town.

"Well done kid, the next step is to burst this," he handed him a rubber ball, "you have to put more power into this one, keep practicing while I go search for information regarding Tsunade."

He then left Naruto and went after a random girl, Naruto headed to their hotel and stayed there trying to do the technique, he was getting close but he ended up causing the balloon to deflate instead of exploding. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, he felt two extremely powerful chakra signatures from behind the door, he didn't recognise either of them.

 **"Be careful kit, those are members of Akatsuki, it is Itachi and Kisame."** Kurama said in his head.

'What! Why are they after me I'm the last in the cycle, they are also way too early, how did we not see this coming?'

 **"It seems that Pein sent them in secret perhaps, Zetsu doesn't know everything and Saiken can only tell us what occurs at meetings and at their main base."**

'What do I do?'

 **"Create some clones as backup and have one of them answer the door, quickly. Then jump out the window and create more clones to rain hell upon them."**

Naruto did so but as he was about to make his escape the clone was dispelled by Kisame and Itachi threw kunai at him, he dodged and pulled his bow out.

"Itachi Uchiha, Kisame the bijuu without a tail what are you two doing here" Naruto asked.

"We have come for you Naruto, come peacefully and you will be mostly unharmed." Itachi said.

"Ah, come on Itachi, can't I feed some of him to Samehada, she's oh so hungry." At this the sword on Kisame's back seemed to vibrate. Naruto had heard of this sword, it ate chakra which was a big reason why Kisame was so powerful, without his sword he was much weaker than normal sure he had large chakra reserves but most of his power came from the sword, it could eat chakra off another person and give it to him.

"What for?" Now Naruto was trying to stall for time so that Jiraiya could arrive, he wouldn't be able to fight either of them one on one as he was but neither of them would risk a fight with the toad sannin.

"That does not matter now-" Itachi was cut off by the appearance of a rather surprising person, Sauske.

"Itachi, I have become stronger and now I will kill you." He said and then charged up a chidori and ran at Itachi, there was an explosion and suddenly Sauske had a broken wrist and Itachi was speaking to him quietly, Naruto turned to Kisame.

"So, what do we do while their having a chat?" Naruto asked. Suddenly the walls started looking like the insides of a stomach and Jiraiya appeared. Sauske's unconscious form disappeared into the wall, Jiraiya stood in front of Naruto protectively.

"You took your time." Naruto said sarcastically.

"Well sorry, I didn't realise that you were being attacked by them." Jiraiya replied slightly annoyed.

"Kisame, we will leave now." Itachi said and they disappeared around the corner.

"It is useless, this is the oesophagus of a great, fire-breathing toad. It can handle any flame and you will be unable to escape." Jiraiya said. Itachi and Kisame were suddenly gone leaving an opening in the wall, there were black flames around the hole, it was slowly increasing the hole's size.

"'Unable to escape,' you said." Naruto said.

"Yeah well, I didn't know he could use that, they're hottest flames I know of, the flames of legend that the Uchiha were said to be able to control, Amaterasu." Jiraiya said.

"How do you know about that?" Naruto asked.

"I heard the legend, that means he has the mangekyou, the highest form of sharingan." Suddenly Jiraiya was hit in the face by a green blur and flew across the room. The blur turned out to be Gai who looked proud of himself before realising it was Jiraiya he hit, after an apology he took Sauske back to the village. They continued on their journey until eventually the made it to Tanzaku Gai, when they got there they saw that the castle seemed more ruined than it should have been.

They heard rumours of a large snake destroying the castle, this caused Naruto's eyes to flash dangerously red. They went bar to bar and casino to casino searching for Tsunade and just as they were about to give up Naruto sensed a large chakra signature coming from the last bar when they entered they saw the sannin.

"Tsunade, how are you doing?" Jiraiya asked, startling Tsunade slightly.

"Jiraiya? What are you doing here? I guess today has been a day for seeing old friends." She muttered causing Naruto to narrow his eyes slightly as he guessed who the previous visitor had been.

"Tsunade, sensei died, Orochimaru killed-" Jiraiya began but was interrupted.

"I know, Orochimaru came gloating over it." She said.

"The elders, they wanted me to be Hokage, I can't do that. We need you to come back to be the fifth Hokage." Jiraiya said.

"No, the Hokage is a fool's job, it is not worth it." Tsunade replied.

"Don't talk about the old man like that." Naruto said.

"Why not he was a fool, Jiraiya who is the kid?" Tsunade asked.

"This is Naruto Uzumaki," at this her eyes widened slightly, "he is my new apprentice."

"What! I am not your apprentice, old pervert." Naruto said.

"We'll talk about this later, Tsunade don't join Orochimaru no matter what he promises," at this Tsunade looked startled, "why else would he come to you, he's lost his arms and he's trying to get them healed. What sensei did is beyond anything you can heal by the way." At this Tsunade looked angry, was he questioning her medical skills?

"I can heal anything." She boasted.

"You can't heal damage to the soul." Naruto said causing her to look confused, "the old man didn't steal away, break or otherwise damage his arms, he tore out part of his soul and fed it to the Shinigami. Nothing can heal that, even if he managed to find out how to get his arms back from the god of death, his soul isn't strong enough to pull it back together. Especially with his new found 'immortality'."

"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked and even Jiraiya looked curious.

"When I fought him," Tsunade looked surprised, "I noticed his soul didn't belong in his body, he has used a jutsu to become a parasite. He now jumps from host to host and because if that his soul itself is being torn apart. That and the reanimation jutsu destroys his soul even more than normal, the price of cheating death is a high one." Tsunade looked surprised and horrified, Jiraiya just winced at how far their teammate had fallen and Shizune looked like she was going to be sick.

"I take it he promised you your loved ones back?" At Tsunade's shaky nod he continued, "he's lying he can bring their soul back but it isn't permanent and is a bad idea, for one thing you need sacrifices and for another he won't hold it up for you, it would be a constant strain. He wouldn't be able to hold it permanently even he would run out and if you did the jutsu how would you live with yourself? Could the people you raise still care for you?" Tsunade started to cry slightly at the thought of her brother and boyfriend hating her, "Just don't join Orochimaru, I don't care if you don't become Hokage, the idiot can be in charge of the village, you've clearly gotten weaker while you've been away, I doubt you are strong enough after all these years."

"What are you saying brat! I'm as strong as I ever was, I could beat you with one finger if I wanted to." Tsunade said causing Naruto to laugh slightly and Jiraiya to look terrified, "outside now you little brat." Tsunade growled out.

They left the bar and Tsunade looked at Naruto, "I will beat you with only one finger." Naruto ran at Tsunade and attempted to punch her, the sannin flicked him on the head and he flew back into the building. Naruto got out of the rubble and pulled out his bow he fired an arrow saying

"Don-teki gaishō" sending an arrow at Tsunade who was surprised but tried to block it with her bare hand. It hit and she was surprised that she was sent flying back into one of the buildings.

"What was that." Tsunade asked as she pulled herself out if the rubble. Naruto said nothing but got another arrow ready to fire at the woman, she was prepared and managed to get in front of him before he could fire she flicked him again and managed to hit him into another building, he got up and started gathering chakra in his hand before running at Tsunade and tried to hit her with a rasengan. She dodged and knocked him back before he could get up she held him down.

"You taught him that Jiraiya? He'll never be able to do that." Tsunade said.

"He'll be able to do it, he's their kid." Jiraiya said.

"So, he's her son?" Tsunade asked tears beginning to gather in her eyes as she thought back to her genin team.

"Yes. I take it you still remember and care about her; she was one of the strongest ninja about." Jiraiya reminisced sadly.

"She was. Tell you what brat," she said addressing Naruto again, "if you complete that jutsu by the end of the week I will come back and be the fifth Hokage, also I'll give you this." She then removed a necklace from her neck showing him the gem attached.

"Deal."

And with that a bet was made.

(The end of the week)

Naruto had been working constantly on completing the rasengan and about halfway through the week managed to figure out he could use a shadow clone to help with the rotation to make it more powerful, he soon completed the jutsu but since then had been trying to use it without the clone, he eventually managed to get it down to two hands but couldn't get any further. It was now Tsunade's deadline to meet up with Orochimaru, since she knew that she could neither fight him alone and also knew his deal was false it was decided that she and Jiraiya would face their old teammate. They all left to face him as they knew that he had backup in the form of Kabuto who managed to escape capture during the invasion by using a strange jutsu involving corpses that looked like him.

Naruto made a clone to keep them cover but promised to leave the sannin to their fight, he said he and Shizune would take care of Kabuto and any other reinforcements the snake had. The four of them went to the location and it soon escalated when the three sannin summoned the bosses of their respective contract. Kabuto then jumped at Tsunade and cut his arm wide open splashing blood all over Tsunade, she froze and fell off the slug summon Katsuya who split and sent one of her fragments, with Tsunade, to Shizune. Katsuya then reformed and continued to fight the snake, Tsunade then had to be guarded as Kabuto jumped at her, Naruto bared his path and kicked him away. He watched him heal up before his eyes.

"So, your technique does result in near instant healing, that is quite interesting, but it does have one huge flaw," Naruto said.

"And what, pray tell, is that?" Kabuto asked angrily.

"You need to know what's coming to heal it early." Naruto then smirked and Kabuto looked confused before he felt something smash into his back, he flew forward and began healing the damage done to him but it would take too long. He saw Naruto's approaching form and realised it would take about two minutes to heal the damage done to him. He didn't have that amount of time. Naruto went towards Kabuto bow raised ready to shoot him in the head with the full force his Don-teki gaishō allowed, he wanted to make sure the spy died this time.

He was about to fire the arrow when suddenly a sword appeared through his chest, right through his heart.

"Kuku, Naruto-kun it seems I have won." Manda was still fighting the other summons and Jiraiya was headed his way but he could save his apprentice and kill Tsunade before Jiraiya or she could react. He was just about to kill Tsunade but he heard the sound of the boy he just stabbed gasping and then a whirling sound he remembered from Jiraiya's first apprentice original jutsu.

His eyes widened as he remembered that jutsu and realised he couldn't dodge. The jutsu hit him in the back and he flew in the direction of Kabuto, away from his target. He grabbed Kabuto and realised he had no chance of killing her now so he ran with Kabuto still healing himself. He ran as fast as he could and managed to escape as the others were trying to help Naruto, he was healing himself but it was slower than normal.

'What's going on Kaa-chan why aren't I healing like normal?' He asked the kyuubi.

 **"I don't know kit, I'm tying my best but something's interfering, there's some sort of chakra that won't let mine near yours, I-I I can't heal you."** The Kyuubi said, so horrified that nothing was working, the kit needed saving but nothing was working, that chakra, what was it? It felt like the chakra that came from the very earth itself, how could Orochimaru- sage chakra! Their father used this, it forced the bijuu's chakra away from it, it wasn't like their fathers though. It was twisted in with Orochimaru's own. It couldn't defeat a bijuu, he had no chance against one of them, but it could damage their Jinchuuriki. Naruto needed someone else to save him.

 **"Kit you need to get help from someone else, or you'll… you won't make it. I can keep blood pumping for about a minute but I can't keep it up, it will damage you more."**

Naruto was gasping for breath but managed to whisper something, "Kaa-chan- can't h-h-help, I ne-e-e-d help."

"Shizune, help him, you're a medic." Jiraiya said, he was scared of losing his godson like this.

"I-I can't, I don't have the skill to do something so complex." She said, something this bad was normally instant death, she had never seen anyone survive it before.

"Move." Came the voice of Tsunade, they turned and saw her heading towards them. She knelt down and started healing him, she was shaking slightly from the blood but knew she was his only chance to survive. "Come on kid, you won the bet. I'm going to be Hokage, you need to see your bets through." She muttered, she was holding back tears, suddenly instead of Naruto sitting there she saw her brother, she couldn't save him, but she'd be damned if Kushina's son died on her watch.

She healed the damage but he didn't have a heartbeat, had she failed? No! She felt it, there was a heartbeat, it was faint but it was there. She relaxed slightly, he would live. She pulled off the first Hokage's necklace, she looked at it and thought 'don't take him, let him live.' She then put the necklace around the unconscious boy's neck.

(Inside Mind Scape)

 **"Is he ok Kurama?"** asked Matatabi, the fear was evident on all of their faces, they hated when this happened to any of the Jinchuuriki but now they felt so helpless, they couldn't heal him.

 **"Are you sure it's sage chakra?"** Son Goku asked, how could that man have access to any sage chakra.

 **"Yes, but it was different, it felt darker. It was like it was incomplete, it was like the sage chakra the summons use, but the snake wasn't in sage mode."** Kurama said. **"Wait, he's ok! The female healed him!"** Kurama exclaimed happily, the other bijuu looked relieved and they stopped fearing for the young Jinchuuriki's life.

 **"Thank goodness, I don't know what they would say if we lost him, do you think his mother is watching him?"** Kukuo said.

 **"She wasn't from this universe, when she died she returned to where she belonged, she said she could never return."** Saiken said sadly.

 **"Yes, back to the point though, how does the snake have sage chakra?"** Shukaku asked.

 **"It might be the snakes. They can use it, can't they? Don't they have white snake sage mode or something like that?"** Chomei asked.

 **"They only had the one sage in their clan, he didn't teach it though. I remember him he was a lot of fun, he's only a couple thousand years younger than us."** Kurama reminisced. **"He was the only one of their clan I could ever stand, I hate their current leader, he's so arrogant."**

 **"Maybe he forged the sword Orochimaru uses, or put some sage chakra into it, if so then Orochimaru poses a threat to our Jinchuuriki."** Gyuki said.

 **"It is a possibility, it could be a poison that was on the sword, it didn't affect him last time remember."** Son Goku said, the bijuu then remembered what happened in the forest.

 **"You might be right, we know though that the snake isn't a sage though, there was no evidence of sage chakra in his system. We need a way to combat this though, he could kill any of our Jinchuuriki easily, we know he was in the Akatsuki and we know that the Zetsu clones are watching at all times. We need one of them to be a sage. If one learns he can teach the others."** Kurama said.

 **"Your right, none of us learned how to use nature chakra in any way. Do any of them have summon contracts with animals that can use sage chakra."** Isobu said.

 **"There aren't many summon clans that can boast a sage mode, as far as I know, the ones that do are: the snakes, the toads, the salamanders, the spiders, one of the bird contracts, the dragons and all of our contracts but we haven't talked to them in a couple thousand years."** Saiken said.

The bijuu each found that each of them were in charge of a summon clan that their father helped make as a present for them. Since to summon you needed the same level of chakra to summon who you wanted to summon the bijuu themselves couldn't physically be summoned. They were each technically the bosses of their clans but they broke contact years ago.

Shukaku was in charge of the tanuki, racoon and dog clans; Matatabi was in charge of the cat clan which had, at some point, split off as the bigger cats wanted away from the 'weaker' cats; Isobu was in charge of the turtle and tortoise clans. Son Goku was in charge of the ape clan and the monkey clan; Kukuo was in charge of the dolphin and horse clans; Saiken was in charge of the slug clan.

Chomei was in charge of the various bug clans that were about but most of them were rather small except the beetle and wasp clans; Gyuki was in charge of the bull clan and also the octopus and squid clans; finally, Kurama was in charge of the fox clan. It was possible to have their Jinchuuriki use their contracts but they would need to meet up with the current leaders of their clans.

The fact that they were sealed was quite a setback to them but it would be best to use their own clans contract for their Jinchuuriki. They knew that some of these clans had summoners and some would be easy to track down like the tortoise, apes and slugs. Some could be easily found as they knew where the homes were like the cat who had become their own society and had a castle last Matatabi checked, or could be contacted easily as the beetles had come into contact with a couple of clans but weren't in the hands of a clan. The rest either moved their dens on a regular basis like the horses, bulls and fox clan but the rest just hid away from the humans as they didn't like them.

 **"I say we get our Jinchuuriki to sign any contracts that they come in contact with, we can then contact them through the Jinchuuriki and we can have their contract sent through the Jinchuuriki. We can get the nine of them to sign all of the contracts but they will have to find them, then they can each learn one of their sage modes."** Matatabi said.

 **"The summons might not like that, they normally only have one summoner, if we do that they will have at least nine."** Saiken said.

 **"Then we can make an agreement with them that they only summon in emergencies or that each of them only uses one contract."** Gyuki said.

 **"That way they can all learn a sage mode and it won't annoy the clan too much, but it allows the Jinchuuriki to learn sage mode at an equal speed."** Saiken said.

 **"So, we just tell them to find all the contracts and sign them, they aren't all that easy to find."** Son Goku said sceptically.

 **"Well, Naruto has met the holder of the ape, slug, tortoise and dog contracts."** Kurama said.

 **"So, we trust in Naruto's dumb luck?"** Kukuo said.

 **"Yes, he does seem to have a lot of luck these days."** Kurama said with a laugh.

(With Naruto)

Naruto was just waking up at this point, he saw that he was in the hotel, he looked around to see that he was alone in the room. He decided to ask why his Kaa-chan didn't heal him until he was unconscious. 'Kaa-chan, why didn't you heal me for so long?'

 **"I'm sorry, I couldn't heal you, Orochimaru has somehow used a bastardised version of sage mode or at least he made a poison that did, either that or he did something to his sword to make it use sage chakra, we don't really know why but it forcibly removes bijuu chakra, that's why I couldn't heal you. It isn't permanent and has already worn off but right now you are tired. Tsunade healed you and agreed to be Hokage, she also gave you Hashirama's necklace."**

'Thanks, Kaa-chan, but what's sage mode and sage chakra?'

 **"It's basically the chakra of the world, it can be used by people but is generally hard to learn, most people can't learn it. Some summoning clans have it, there is actually something really important for you to do, we, the bijuu, agreed to have all of you search for our summoning contracts."**

'You have a summoning contract?'

 **"No, we each became the head of one or more summoning clans, for example I'm the boss of the fox clan. We haven't talked in a couple hundred years and I don't know who's currently in charge but technically I'm the boss."**

'What do you mean by "one or more"?'

 **"Well some bijuu, like say Kukuo are more than one animal, so Kukuo is in charge of both the dolphin and horse clans."**

'Ok, so why are we finding your summoning contracts? That doesn't sound easy.'

 **"It won't be, some of them we don't have any idea where they are, but you have met the carriers of four of them: Tsunade, Sarutobi, Gai and Kakashi."**

'It won't be easy, what do I say to them?'

 **"Tsunade will be Hokage, I think it might be time to tell someone else about our plan."**

'You can't be serious Kaa-chan! We just met her, why should we trust her?'

 **"Well you have just met her, she was your mother's sensei. She is also related to you in some way, she is Mito Uzumaki's granddaughter, Kushina and her became very close before she left the village and Kushina had you."**

'What so she's like my cousin or something?'

 **"Something like that, I don't know the exact relation but Kushina might have been cousins or second cousins but they were close."**

Just then the door to the room opened and Tsunade walked in, he said goodbye to his Kaa-chan and turned to Tsunade. "Hi," Naruto began, "um, did you know my Kaa-san?" Naruto asked, this caused Tsunade to stiffen, she didn't suspect he knew who his parents were.

"Yes, I was her sensei, we became very close during our time together, I knew her before then too, Mito was my grandmother and when Kushina came to be the Jinchuuriki, I met her. We started off a bit rocky but we grew closer over something we both hated and got angry at, Jiraiya. We used to see who could hit him further, I normally won but she could sometimes get a good hit in." Tsunade said.

"Could you tell me about her?"

Tsunade smiled, "Yes, she was a great person, she was fun to be about and could beat most people in a fight, I think she may have been stronger than me at some point. She also had a short temper and was always a bit paranoid about her friends getting hurt. She sometimes cared too much, she would rather herself die than any of her allies."

"Thanks. Um, are we related? Because I was told we were."

"We are, I'm your second cousin, who told you?"

"Kaa-chan, err, Kyuubi." At this she looked shocked then angry then scared. Eventually she settled on a strange mix of curious and terrified.

"Oh, Kaa-chan's not a monster, people just lie and over-exaggerate all the stories."

"But-"

"Calm down, Kaa-chan and… err… Kaa-san were friends." Tsunade then gave Naruto the same reasoning everyone else gave and Naruto told her what he told everyone else, it lasted quite a while before Tsunade saw his side.

(Konoha after Tsunade becomes Hokage)

After Tsunade became Hokage Naruto immediately told her there was some important business to take care of, they went to her office and he told her to put up every silencing seal she could.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because there is a secret that I must tell you and it is big, there isn't even enough people living to class the rank of the secret. What is said cannot be repeated by you under any circumstances, if it got out, bad things will happen." She reluctantly complied and then Naruto set about being as paranoid as humanly possible and removed everything from the office until it was completely empty. He then proceeded to use both his own sensing skills and that of Kyuubi's to search the room. He found somebody and immediately threw a kunai at them hitting them in the leg they fell to the ground and became visible, it was a figure dressed like an ANBU but with a mask that read 'NE'.

Tsunade scowled and told the ANBU to take him to Ibiki, Naruto then used a technique his Kaa-chan had told him to search for invisible seals by activating the chakra in them causing them to glow. He soon found monitoring seals and recording seals. Tsunade scowled again and told the ANBU to find out who was monitoring this office, Naruto then personally rewrote all of the silencing seals and had Tsunade do the same. They then set them about the office and only then was Naruto satisfied.

"Ok so now are you going to tell me this big secret or what?"

"No, we are going into the seal to talk to Kaa-chan, I still don't trust this." Tsunade sweat dropped and then got confused, "put chakra into what's left of the seal and we'll go inside." They did so and they entered into the forest that was Naruto's mind, Tsunade was amazed and looked around until she saw the kyuubi, she then froze and looked at the fox in fear.

"Calm down, Kaa-chan won't hurt you," he then muttered something she barely heard, "it's them I'm worried about."

"What do you mean by them? Who else is here?"

"Right then, you're going to be the first living human to ever learn our secret since the sage of the six paths, the bijuu are connected through a chakra link, a Jinchuuriki then becomes a part of that link, we're all connected we can talk through a shared mindscape." Naruto then explained the nature of the link and a general overview of what it was like, he then got to the point about Zetsu and his plan to revive his mother by basically destroying the world.

By the end Tsunade was speechless and had her jaw open so wide they were pretty sure she was actively attempting to catch fly's.

"And now we're going to introduce you to the other bijuu and Jinchuuriki." Naruto finished.

"What-huh-why… Why me?" Tsunade asked.

"That is part of the next point, you see the bijuu are weak against sage chakra, that was why I didn't heal myself after Orochimaru, that is why the bijuu want us all to become sage's, to match any other sage. To do that we need summoning contracts that use sage jutsu. You have one of those contracts with the slugs."

"So, you want me to grant eight strangers access to my family contract?!" Tsunade was outraged.

"Sort of, it's part of the plan, but the thing is well, do you know who the boss summon for the slug contract is?"

"Of course, it is lady Katsuya my personal summon."

"Not exactly, you see Katsuya is just in charge until the boss returns, she probably hasn't met the true boss summon for the slugs herself, the real boss is Saiken, the six-tailed slug." Tsunade looked shocked, how did she not know this?

"Don't worry I don't think any human actually know the true boss summons for their contracts if they have it. We are all on the lookout for these contracts to learn sage jutsu because technically they are the bijuu's contracts. Now we are going to talk to the other Jinchuuriki please don't aggravate them, they aren't exactly fond of humans."

"But, you are human, why do act like you're not?"

"Because we're Jinchuuriki, it's easier to act like we're different because we're treated differently." With that they walked to the shared part of the mind scape neither knowing how it would turn out.

(With Artemis)

Artemis was in her tent conversing with herself over the fate of her son, she did this regularly now, and was becoming increasingly scared as the days came closer. Suddenly she felt the presence of a Goddess she recognised very well, Athena suddenly appeared. Artemis had been wondering when she would show up.

"I expected you to come years ago, I take it this is about your son then?" Artemis asked getting a nod in return. "He was a nice person, for a man, he was kind but lived a hard life like all of them did. He pulled through though, he had a bloodline from his bijuu, he could control lava. He was smart and quite strategical but not more than any of your other children. He was though very wise; he was in his thirties when I died so he had reason to. He is the oldest of the lot of them right now."

Athena had small tears starting to form when she asked this next question, "does he hate me?"

"No, he thinks you're dead, they think we're all dead he would have loved you though."

"Thank you." They continued talking about the other world and their children, Artemis told her stories of what she remembered of Roshi, how he wore the ridiculous hat and nose guard most of the time, how he, like the others had an absurdly large appetite and how Roshi accidently learned he was fireproof. It was quite a funny story and by the end both were laughing. This continued well into the night.


	12. Chapter 12

(In the mindscape)

The kyuubi was currently carrying Naruto and Tsunade to the central meeting place, Naruto was currently telling her exactly what to look out for and who would be the worst of his siblings to annoy.

"Ok, B and Yugito will probably be ok with you being here. Garra well he's going through an epiphany or something but still might react violently to your presence. Yagura might try to skin you alive and drown you but she's a Kage and does do a lot of diplomacy so you may be able to survive her." At this Tsunade blanched and started to sweat slightly. "Roshi hasn't been in contact with humans in a few years and may try to melt you a few times but as long as you don't make fun of his ridiculous hat and nose guard I'll be able to stop the worst of it, but if you insult them then you better have a grave ready. Hana is normally quite friendly but she also tries to stay away from humans, she does have regular contact with her Kage but normally only to send her on missions, don't provoke her though." Tsunade started to sweat even more and looked at Naruto like he was crazy. "Utakata is probably too lazy to attack you but he doesn't like humans and has been avoiding them since he escaped the mist, Yagura's been trying to get him back but that's none of your business. Fu might immediately aim for your throat and she may possibly try to gut you like a fish but, um. Good luck with Fu."

"Aren't you going to say you'll protect me or something?" Tsunade asked, she was currently terrified.

"Yeah, I'll try my best."

"This is my life we're talking about here. Could you sound a bit more reassuring?"

"Oh, don't worry, if you die here you won't die in real life right Kaa-chan?"

 **"No of course not. If she were to die here her body would become comatose and eventually braindead, she'd be perfectly fine."** The Kyuubi answered which definitely did not help any of Tsunade's fears.

"And since the bijuu all know we're coming we've nothing to worry about from them." Naruto said finally, this caused the Kyuubi to mutter something, "what was that Kaa-chan?"

 **"I may have ever so slightly forgotten to tell them we were bringing her."** Naruto and Tsunade started sweating like a waterfall, Naruto looked to Tsunade and she thought he would say something to make her feel better.

"If it makes you feel better we won't pull the plug on your body." This did not make her feel better.

"So, you're bringing me to meet eight extremely hostile bijuu who may just vaporise me on the spot, and six human hating Jinchuuriki with only you and maybe two slightly less hostile Jinchuuriki on our side?"

"Yup, it looks like we're here." Tsunade nearly had a heart attack when she saw the eight menacing forms of the bijuu look right at them and then immediately stare at her, she then took note of eight very confused looking Jinchuuriki, six of who's confusion was turning to visible anger. They all stood there for about a minute just staring at each other before Naruto spoke up.

"I just want to point out, this was all Kaa-chans idea." Then all hell broke loose, there were cries from the bijuu of "What the hell were you thinking?" and "Have you lost your mind?" while the Jinchuuriki had a more varied reaction, Garra just looked confused; Yugito looked very annoyed but it was more directed at Naruto than Tsunade; Yagura looked like she was about to fire off jutsu and had already removed her staff from her back; Roshi looked shocked which morphed into slight fear as he assumed she had broken in; Hana stared blankly at the three of them not letting any emotion show; Utakata looked slightly angry but went back to blowing his bubbles; Fu looked downright murderous and had grown wings and was already flying towards them; B just looked at Tsunade's chest.

Fu flew up and was about to kill Tsunade but Naruto stood in her way, "calm down Nee-chan, she's just here to talk."

"No! We need to kill her, she's seen this place and she'll give us away. She'll tell the others and then we'll not be able to talk and-" She was interrupted when Naruto brought her into a hug.

"Calm down Nee-chan, that won't happen. She's here to help, she's a friend and cousin to Kaa-san, do you remember my Kaa-san? She was Kaa-chan's Jinchuuriki before me, you were young back then but you should be able to remember her."

Fu started crying slightly, "yeah, I remember her, she used to tell stories but she was one of us! This woman isn't she'll hurt us!" she shouted before going to a whisper, "she'll hurt you."

"She won't, she's here to help us but she needed to know about us to help us, she won't tell anyone." Naruto whispered and brought her closer into the hug.

"I know she can be trusted because she saved me, I was dying and Kaa-chan couldn't help. She healed me." Fu looked shocked and teared up even more at the thought of losing her little brother. "That's why she's here, we have a weakness and she can help us."

"What kind of weakness?" Hana asked making her presence known.

"Bijuu chakra doesn't work against sage chakra, Kaa-chan couldn't heal the damage from Orochimaru's sword, Zetsu was there and may have figured out that we are weak against something, if the Akatsuki use this weakness on us before we're ready we will have no chance. That is why we need a summoning contract that can teach us sage jutsu, she has the slug contract and Saiken is the head of that contract."

"That doesn't mean we should trust her, especially with this knowledge. What does it matter when we do the plan anyway?" Utakata asked.

"We need time to enact our plan, for one thing we need to split the bijuu chakra and get all of that organised, then we need to find a way to release Kaa-chan's other half so that I can be absorbed and then we overload it." Naruto replied.

"What!?" Tsunade asked, Naruto hadn't actually told her about their plan to take care of the ten tails, now she learned Naruto would be absorbed. Naruto then told her the basics of his plan to defeat the Shinju and she was horrified.

"You can't do that, Naruto you'll die!" Tsunade told him.

"I know but it will save everyone else. It is the only way." Naruto replied.

"No, it's not," Hana said, "we found another way."

"Hana! We agreed not to tell him until the preparations are complete." Roshi said.

"What are you talking about, you know of another way to do it?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, we can't tell you, please don't ask anymore." Roshi said.

"No, I want to hear, what is the other way and why are you keeping it from me?" Naruto asked.

"We can't you'd disagree, but it will soon be too late, you don't get to make this choice." Yugito said.

"What is it, if you know I'd disagree then why are you doing it? The plan is perfect the way it is, I'm the only one who dies." Naruto said.

"But you won't just die! Your soul will be torn apart and you'll be in pain for all eternity, we will just make sure that won't happen." Fu said, tears streaming down her face.

"What is the cost?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, we can't tell you it-" Hana began but was interrupted.

"What is the cost!? I need to know, what will it even do?" Naruto interrupted.

"It will save your soul; you won't suffer anymore." Yagura said.

"But I still die?" Naruto asked.

"Possibly." B said solemnly.

"Then what's the cost?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, we can't tell you that, you'll just disagree." Yagura said.

"What is the cost, I need to know!" Naruto yelled.

"We can't tell you, it's for your own good!" Fu yelled.

"For my own good? Your lying to me 'for my own good'? No that is what the old man said, that's what the ANBU said, that is what they said after they said they couldn't tell me why I was beat up, that's what the mobs said as they beat me that is what the humans say when they lie to me. So why aren't you telling me!?" Naruto said.

"Because you care too much!" Fu said, causing Naruto to look confused, "you care too much about us! You never think of yourself, your going to give everything for us! It's our turn to return the favour, you will die, but we will go with you."

Fu said causing Naruto's eyes to widen. "No! This is my choice to save all of you, you don't-" Naruto said.

"And this our choice to save you, we wouldn't be able to live knowing you sacrificed not only your life but your death as well for us. We won't be able to go on knowing that you're suffering for us. We couldn't, we just couldn't!" Yugito yelled.

"So, you want my death to be in vain, you want to die as well because of that?" Naruto asked.

"We won't die, not properly anyway." Hana muttered.

"What do you mean? What is this plan anyway?" Naruto asked.

"We'll talk about this later, for now we have to deal with _her._ " Fu said with as much venom as she could as she dried her tears. "Why didn't you just take the contract or at least make up another excuse?"

"I don't think she would give me the contract without a good reason, I brought her here as proof, now this is Tsunade of the sannin, the fifth Hokage." Naruto said. "Ok, so now what?"

"I don't know, you brought her, I assume you told her of the situation." Naruto nodded at Yugito's statement.

"Well as Hokage, I'll try to keep you up to date on any Akatsuki sightings that you may have missed, do you know where there based?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes, Ame. Their strongest defeated Hanzo the salamander and has brought peace." Roshi said.

 **"Their leader was manipulated, all he wants is peace, he became a pawn in Madara's plan. Tsunade don't trust the one named Danzo, he is the cause of many problems. It was he who led to Nagato, Akatsuki's leader, down his path. He caused Nagato to kill his friend and led to the creation of Akatsuki as we know it."** Kurama said, it seemed they stopped bickering.

 **"Saiken was spying as this happened, he believes Konoha is to blame."** Matatabi said.

"Thank you, Naruto I think we should go, people will be getting worried by now." Tsunade said. The two of them left leaving the others in the mindscape.

 **"Are you sure it is wise letting her know Kurama?"** Isobu asked.

 **"Yes, she is trustworthy, she is also part Uzumaki. She and Kushina were also friends."** Kurama said.

 **"And you,"** Kukuo began looking at Hana, **"we agreed not to tell him until the preparations are complete, by then we will have no choice but to go along with the plan, now that he knows he may be able to talk you out of it."**

"He won't, we will go through with this. If there is even a chance of lessening his suffering, we shall take it." Hana replied.

"It's true, he won't suffer alone, we will make sure of that." Fu said.

"How long until the point of no return?" Roshi asked.

 **"At the rate we're going, three years. You all must survive for three years longer."** Gyuki said.

 **"Has he noticed the changes yet Kurama?"** Shukaku asked.

 **"No, not yet. It is only a matter of time. I still hate not telling him what we're doing to him, it feels like we're taking advantage of him."** Kurama said.

"As long as he lives, I don't care if he hates us until the end of time, but our brother will live." Yagura said.

 **"How long until he realises do you think?"** Son Goku asked.

 **"A few weeks at best, a few days at worst. It will hurt him the most you know, I hope you know what you're taking away from him. You'll take away any chance for him to earn the respect of the village, if he still held onto that dream of being Hokage he would hate you. As it is he will still hate you, but he could never keep that hatred for you, he loves you too much for that."** Kurama said.

"Like Yagura said, as long as he lives." Garra said.

 **"I don't want to see him hate us, and he will for a time, but your right. It is the only way."** Kurama said sadly, **"I hope you understand, he may never trust us again after this."**

"We know, but we don't care." Yugito said.

(In the Hokage's office)

Naruto and Tsunade woke up and Tsunade looked at the clock, only an hour had passed. "How, we were in there for hours?" Tsunade asked.

"Time acts differently in the seal; we don't really know the exact scale but it is slower in there than out here." Naruto replied. He suddenly turned serious, "not a word to anyone, not the council, not the pervert not even Shizune. Don't speak of it unless there are privacy seals about and you're sure no one will hear. This secret has been hidden from humans since the sage of six paths time. You are the first and likely the last human to know it."

"I understand, I'll get you the contract as soon as possible. Is there any chance I could have it returned?" Tsunade asked.

"Of course, we'll figure out how to send it from person to person and it will eventually return to you. Thank you by the way. Is there any chance you could keep an ear out for any of the other contracts? Specifically, the bijuu's ones, some of them have multiple contract but apparently, they like to keep in contact with each other so any of the ones with the bijuu involved. I know Kakashi and Gai each have one but I don't know how to approach them, I won't tell them of any of this."

"First, we'll deal with the slugs, we'll figure the rest out later." Tsunade then brought Naruto to the Senju compound where she kept the scroll, she got Naruto to sign his name and then she summoned a small Katsuya. She told that Katsuya to reverse summon the two of them to the home of the slugs. They arrived in the Shikkotsu Forest where the slugs live and they quickly went to see Katsuya, as she was currently in charge of the clan.

 **"Ah, Tsunade-sama, I see you have brought our newest summoner, is he your new apprentice?"** Katsuya asked.

"It is a little more complicated than that Katsuya-sama." Naruto began, "you see I have been sent by Saiken, the six tails."

At this Katsuya gasped. **"Are you the Jinchuuriki to Saiken-sama?"** Katsuya asked.

 **'You may tell the slug of our link, she might already know.'** Kurama said.

"Do you know of the Jinchuuriki link Katsuya-sama?" Naruto asked, he received a negative and set about explaining the nature of the link to the massive slug. "So Saiken sent me to ask of your help, the bijuu want to be in charge of their contracts once again, but due to us Jinchuuriki they cannot reach them. They want all nine of us to sign all of their contracts, but we are not going to summon any summons other than those our bijuu grant us. The main reason we are all to sign multiple contracts is because we need access to sage mode and since we all may not find the contracts to our set bijuu we may not access sage mode in time. You see we have a weakness to sage mode as our bijuu's chakra is forced away from sage chakra."

 **"I see, well if Saiken-sama asks of it, it will be done. We will hold you to the agreement, only the Jinchuuriki to Saiken-sama, Tsunade and her apprentice may summon our clan."**

"Thank you Katsuya-sama, I will inform the others." Naruto quickly entered the mind scape and told the other Jinchuuriki and bijuu of this agreement. He returned to see Tsunade and Katsuya chatting about the implications of the contract, it would not affect the relationship between the two of them.

"Katsuya-sama, they have been informed, the Jinchuuriki to Saiken is named Utakata." Naruto informed. "He doesn't use acid jutsu much but is well versed in suiton ninjutsu, he is particularly good at using what he calls bubble ninjutsu."

 **"Thank you for this information, how will the contract get to them?"** Katsuya asked.

"I don't know, I don't think they can sign it in the mindscape. Is there any way to meet them in an assigned location?" Naruto asked.

 **"You would have to do so yourself, since you are technically not a summoner, I will allow you to summon myself to hand the contract to the other Jinchuuriki."**

"Thank you Katsuya-sama, I think we should leave now." Naruto said. They left and Tsunade handed the summoning scroll to Katsuya, they returned to the Hokage's tower and went to Tsunade's office.

"Is there any way you could send me to the other nations on diplomatic trips with you, you must have to go on a trip to the sand to finalise their surrender, may I come with you to give Garra the scroll."

"Yes Naruto." Tsunade replied, "I can also send you on missions near some of the other villages, it will be easier from then on as they can pass the scroll out easily from then on, I will see what I can do regarding Gai and Kakashi's contracts. I don't think they're family contracts like the apes of the Sarutobi clan but the two of them will be protective of them. The Sarutobi clan is another matter, I may be able to sort something out but it will be difficult."

"Thank you." Naruto said then he left the room. He went to the mind scape and told the others, Roshi said he might be able to meet up with Utakata to see them on the journey to sand, they agreed to stay in the area so that they would be able to meet them on the diplomatic trip. Now that they had sorted that out they had to figure out how to get the other contracts as many people kept their contracts as close guarded secrets. If they could convince them to talk to the boss summons of the contract, then they could simply ask them about the contract and do it in secret. For the most part neither Kakashi nor Gai used the summons much and someone else having the contract wouldn't affect them much but when it came to the Sarutobi clan things would be much harder.

They would sort that out soon though, the diplomatic trip to sand was coming up and it would be easier to send the four contracts at once, that way Roshi, Utakata and Garra would have their contracts. Then one of them would be able to send the turtle contract to Yagura, maybe Utakata who had been considering returning to the village. It not then they would have to sort more diplomatic trips. Currently they had brought Gai into the office, well Tsunade had. The Jonin was unaware of Naruto's involvement in this and would be kept in the dark as much as possible, she was just going to ask that he summon the boss of the contract in a training field then Naruto and her could explain the situation, they would then do the same for Kakashi.

"Gai I must speak with the Boss summon of the Turtle clan in private, could you summon him?" Tsunade asked.

"Yosh, Tsunade-sama I would be glad to, is there anywhere for me to summon the boss." Gai replied, the two went to a training field and Naruto followed them using stealth learned throughout the years. They made it to the training field and Gai summoned the boss. The boss summon for the turtles and tortoises was a giant green tortoise, it stood at nearly the same height as Gamabunta and was named Kameoki.

"Thank you Gai." Tsunade said.

 **"Gai, why have you brought me here?"** The large tortoise asked.

"It was I who asked for your presence Kameoki-sama. I have to talk with you regarding Isobu." Tsunade said causing the Tortoise's eyes to widen.

 **"Gai, leave us, this matter is not for you to hear yet."** Kameoki said. Gai left immediately. **"How do you know of that name, they all kept their names to themselves except that Tanuki, how do you know?"**

"One of the Jinchuuriki has informed me, he has a message from the three tails." Tsunade said.

 **"Isobu-sama's Jinchuuriki's is here?"** The tortoise asked.

"No, Kameoki-sama." Naruto said, "the privacy seals are up Tsunade-sama, not even Zetsu can get in here." He came out of the trees surprising the boss summon. "I am Naruto Uzumaki Jinchuuriki of the nine-tailed fox." Naruto then explained the situation to the boss summon.

 **"Very well, I agree with this situation, Gai keeps the contract with us and doesn't summon on a regular basis, as long as Isobu-sama's Jinchuuriki is our actual summoner we shall agree to these terms. I hope you understand though that all the various sage modes have different abilities. No one has ever attempted to be a sage to multiple contracts, very few even make it to sage level."** With that Naruto signed the contract and agreed to only summon the contract holder, Ningame, to give the contract to his fellow Jinchuuriki.

They then moved on to talking with Kakashi about the dog summons and did the same thing, Kakashi was a bit more curious but once he heard it was involved in an S-class secret he quickly quietened. The boss for the dog summons was a large border collie which looked rather confused but upon hearing the name Shukaku told Kakashi to leave, they then went on to explain the situation like they had with Kameoki, the bosses name was Torikki.

"So Torikki-sama, do you agree to the deal?" Naruto asked.

 **"I do, I will contact the wolf, tanuki and racoon clans, though we do not always get along we do keep in contact, I do understand though that the wolf contract is currently in possession of the Inuzuka clan of Konoha here, they might find it suspicious that names will be added to their scroll."** Naruto then signed the scroll and they now tried to figure out some way to get the Sarutobi clan to summon Enma the boss of the apes.

"Is there anything in the old mans will about the ape clan?" Naruto asked, "if there is we can ask Enma after that." As it turned out Asuma was to receive the clan summoning contract, Tsunade asked to see the monkey king regarding some private matters. Asuma agreed and they had an audience with the monkey king. Asuma left at Tsunade's request.

"Hello Enma-sama, it has been a long time." Tsunade said.

 **"Tsunade, it has been a long time, so you are the Hokage now."** Enma said.

"Yes, that is not why I have asked to speak with you, I have come to convey the will of Son Goku." At this Enma became very serious.

 **"What were his words and how did you receive them?"** The aged monkey asked.

"That would be because of me," Naruto said appearing out of the shadows of the room, "You see there exists a bond between the Jinchuuriki, we can each talk to each other through this bond." Naruto continued his explanation and eventually got to the point where he said what the purpose was.

 **"I guess that can be arranged but only the Jinchuuriki of our boss may summon our kind, I assume the other summons had similar stipulations."** Enma said after some thought, at Naruto's nod he spoke again, **"though the Sarutobi's will not be too happy. They do keep the scroll with us though, they won't know until the young one, Konohamaru, signs it. That won't be for some time though."**

"Thank you Enma-sama, though Jinchuuriki of Son is named Roshi. He can use Son's lava jutsu, he's a bit of a loner but he'll warm up to you pretty quickly." Naruto said causing Enma to smile slightly.

 **"Thank you, now sign the scroll,"** Enma said, he then took the scroll out and opened it up for him, **"I will allow you to summon me to give the scroll to your brethren but the only other reason for me to come will be to teach you our clans sage jutsu."**

"Thank you Enma-sama, I look forward to learning from you." Naruto said. He then left the two of them to figure out who else to bring with them, the two of them couldn't go alone, they would need a few more jonin or ANBU, but who could they trust. "Neko-neechan is in ANBU she would be a good choice and won't ask any questions, as for others why not bring the rookie nine and Gai's team, that would explain my reason for being there." Naruto said.

"That is a good idea, it also makes it easy as they are some of the most powerful jonin for protection, not that we'd need it, it also means that Akatsuki is unlikely to attack." Tsunade added. So, it was decided but before that could be decided Tsunade had to deal with the council, apparently the chunin promotions were never decided so the ranks needed to be given out.

"I'm pretty sure you will make chunin for what happened during the invasion Naruto-chan." At this Naruto pouted slightly before grinning. "Well if they made you Hokage, Baa-chan." Tsunade then threw the desk at him which he just barely dodged. "I guess that's what I'm going to call you from now on, Baa-chan."

"I will kill you, brat." She said and threw the nearest thing, which was her chair, at him. This time it hit and he flew through the wall. She then went to the council meeting where the promotions were decided, Tsunade nearly demanded that Naruto made chunin as not only did he defeat the sands Jinchuuriki but he also defeated the Hyuuga prodigy and did so with great skill. This would have earned most people the rank of jonin but Tsunade had to fight to get him raised to chunin as the elders thought he was getting too powerful.

In the end Naruto did get chunin, he along with Shikamaru earned the rank of chunin. Now she informed them of the mission she would be giving the rookie nine and Gai's team, she said this was in part due to the rise in the criminal organisation Akatsuki. She also said that this would help give them experience in important missions, since the mission was important but the jonin would take care of any major threat.

The council was opposed to taking such a large group she reminded them that this would be considered hostile territory until the treaty was signed. At this many of the clans were opposed to sending their children to a warzone but Tsunade informed them that the presence of the jonin should prevent attack. It was eventually agreed upon the mission but at the insistence of some jonin or ANBU. Tsunade agreed and said she would bring Neko and Anko Mitarashi. After some deliberation, it was agreed upon and the team was finally selected. The mission was going to happen in a three days' time and the teams were all informed, they were all excited. When the time came, they were all anxiously waiting by the gate for the Hokage, they were chatting happily until Sauske noticed the chunin vests on both Naruto and Shikamaru.

"Where did you get those vests?" He asked.

"We got them from the Hokage after our promotion." Naruto replied.

" _You_ made chunin?" Sauske asked shocked and angry that the supposed idiot earned chunin before him.

"Yeah, he beat both his opponents and saved the village from a rampaging bijuu, I'm surprised he didn't make jonin for such a feat, it is not something many could do. He was also the one who informed us of the invasion, it may have succeeded if not for him." Kurenai said.

Sauske seethed slightly at the achievements he had, why was he so strong when he wasn't an avenger. Naruto knew nothing of his pain, he had to kill his brother, so why was he so weak?

"Anyway, Baa-chan's here now so-" Naruto was cut off by a punch to the back of his head from the aforementioned Kage.

"Don't call me that brat!" said the Hokage. "Now are we all her?"

She asked the surrounding genin, chunin and jonin. "Yes Tsunade-sama." Kurenai said, she then looked at Naruto's downed form, "is he ok Lady Tsunade?" She then asked.

"He'll be fine, now let's get a move on." Tsunade said, they left the village and began their journey to the village hidden in the sand. They were traveling slowly as Tsunade said they were in no rush while secretly trying to delay the trip due to the large amount of paperwork being Hokage gave her. Naruto heard her grumbling about paperwork and developed the idea for how to prank the old woman. Paperwork cloning. Suddenly around the world, and on the Olympian world all of the Gods, Kages and other world leaders felt a shiver go up their spine and felt that someone had just doomed them all.

Throughout the trip nothing interesting happened except when a foolish group of bandits decided to attack them, they lasted a total of one second before their death. After that everyone relaxed slightly, Naruto and Tsunade realised that the two Jinchuuriki hadn't met up with them yet, when Naruto asked about it in the mindscape he found that their paths would cross at some point during the next day. Neither Tsunade or Naruto had told the others of the other part of the mission yet.

When the next day came Naruto was quite nervous which his sisters noticed, Anko brought him to the back of the group to talk to him. "What's wrong otouto?" She asked.

"Nothing neechan, why is something wrong?" Naruto asked with false innocence.

"Don't give me that gaki, you look nervous about something, now what is it?" Anko asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't say nee-chan. Hokage's orders, it's an S-class secret" Naruto replied confusing Anko. She left him alone but she and his other sisters sent him glances every few minutes, they looked worried. They were suddenly stopped by the jonin and Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, there are two immensely powerful chakra sources ahead of us. Both are easily Kage level." Kakashi said.

"Naruto send a clone, if it is them, you may go and do your mission. If it is Akatsuki, then we will avoid them, if they come after us we kill them. They would be fools to attack so many powerful ninjas." Tsunade said, this confused everyone except Naruto who sent a clone, he also opened the connection to make sure it wasn't a trap.

After a few minutes of silence, Naruto blinked and spoke up, "it's them." He got up to go but was stopped by Anko.

"Where are you going?" She asked with worry in her voice.

"I have a mission to do." He replied evenly. He tried to get past her but was stopped again.

"What is it, because I can feel the power from those two signatures and they are very powerful, so what business do you, a chunin, have with someone so powerful?"

She asked. "That," Tsunade interrupted, "is a triple S class secret. The mission Naruto is currently on is triple S rank and a complete secret. No one is to know anything about this mission, as a matter of fact if any of you so much as mention that this occurred you will be executed." She finished earning shocked looks from everyone.

"You can't send a chunin on a triple S-class mission, what are you thinking? What is the mission?" Anko asked.

"It is an important mission that only Naruto can complete, and the mission itself will never be listed in any way, legally, this mission to sand went without any interruptions." Tsunade said.

"What! What is the nature if this mission and why is Naruto the only one capable of doing it? Is this because of what he is? Do you think he's expendable because of-?" Anko was interrupted by Tsunade.

"What Naruto is, is a ninja of konohagakure no sato, anything other than that is an S-class secret, remember there are genin and people who do not know that particular secret Jonin Mitarashi. Now let Naruto do his mission."

"No! he-" Anko began but Naruto stopped her.

"Nee-chan, calm down. Nothing bad will happen, this is a simple mission. I won't be hurt, I'll be back soon but it is a mission of great importance, just let me do it, I'll be quick."

"But-" She began again.

"It won't take any more than an hour, I'll be back by then. I'll even leave a clone for you if you want, this is something I have to do." Naruto said he then turned in the direction of the chakra signatures and began tree hopping in that direction.

"This mission is something he has to do, it does have to do with his Kaa-chan. It is the reason why I brought so many of you, you aren't here to protect me, you're here to protect him in case Akatsuki show up again."

"Excuse me Hokage-sama, but what is Akatsuki exactly?" Sakura asked.

"Akatsuki is a group of S-class missing nin, they are currently trying to hunt down another group of people, Naruto is one of these people. Why they are looking for Naruto we don't exactly know but we think that they are building a weapon, they need Naruto to power it as he has a rather special type of chakra, and a large amount of it. What we do know is that Naruto will die if they use him like this." Tsunade said.

"Do you know anyone in this organisation?" Shino suddenly asked.

"Yes, we know some of their members, there was recently a security breach involving two of them, Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi." At this Sauske's eyes widened slightly, "yes, that is the reason for him being there Sauske."

"But how many of them are there?" Ino asked.

"We don't have exact numbers but our intelligence suggests either ten or twelve." Tsunade said causing many of the genin look confused at the threat of such a small number. "You may laugh at that but all of them are either at my level or above, together the ten of them might be able to destroy a village. That is not the worst of it though, their leader is not only stronger than the rest of them, but we manged to find that he beat all of them with ease. Orochimaru was also part of this organisation."

This caused all of the ninja to pale and fear for Naruto's fate, he was being hunted down by an organisation like that.

(With Naruto)

Naruto had made it to the two other Jinchuuriki, he jumped down to the clearing they were sitting in. He then smiled and went over to the two of them, they grinned back at him and Roshi went over and patted him on the head.

"Hey otouto, how's it going?" Roshi said.

"Fine, how are you?" Naruto replied.

"Good, that's quite the group you're with there, why do you have so many for the mission." Roshi asked.

"It's a cover up for the real mission, make it look like it's for a whole group of genin and chunin." Naruto replied.

"Good idea, now I think we should get down to business. How are we doing this?" Roshi asked. Naruto then started summoning, first he summoned Enma.

 **"So, is this the Jinchuuriki to Son Goku-sama?"** The ape asked.

"Yes, this is Roshi, and Utakata Jinchuuriki to Saiken the six tails." Naruto replied, they each bowed to each other showing respect. They each signed the contract in blood and the monkey king left. Next Naruto summoned Katsuya.

 **"Is this the Jinchuuriki to Saiken-sama?"** She asked.

"Yes, Utakata is, Roshi is the four tails, Son Goku's Jinchuuriki." Again, they both signed their contract and Katsuya left. The next summons for the dogs and the turtles each had their contracts signed, each were slightly disappointed that their true summoner wasn't there but had their contracts signed none the less. After all of that Naruto looked to his two brothers and they chatted about unimportant things, they were just happy to be able to talk in the real world.

Eventually Naruto said that he would have to go soon. He thanked the two of them and watched them leave, he turned and went back to his group. He was on his way back but when he was a few minutes from their camp he was tackled by a purple blur.

"Anko-neechan, what are you doing?" Naruto asked.

"Well," she said and scratched the back of her head nervously, "your time was up so I was coming to get you."

"Sorry, but I was only a few minutes late nee-chan." Naruto said. They made their way to the camp and Naruto went up to Tsunade and said, "mission completed without any complications." She sighed and everyone eyed him slightly confused, they decided that they would continue to travel, over the next few days they made it back to the hidden sand.

(On Olympus)

Zeus was worried, after what Artemis had told him about the power of the bijuu he was very nervous, he didn't know if they could be trusted with such power. He truly was paranoid about what would happen, he was confused about what to do. On the one side, his son was one of them but on the other could he really trust his family to not try to overthrow him. He was sure he could trust his son as he was just that, his son. The others, he wasn't sure. It wasn't like there hadn't been demi-gods to them before, but he was quite worried though.

There was also the problem of his wife's other children, what should he do about that. It would be too hypocritical to do what she did, though he was tempted, but he would trust his wife's children for now. It was the others he didn't trust, especially his brother's children they would be problems. He never did trust his brothers very much and became paranoid over everything they did. He would see what happened when they showed up, then he would decide their fates.


	13. Chapter 13

(With Tsunade's group)

After stopping for Naruto's mission, the group continued on their journey, the genin kept looking at Naruto suspiciously from time to time and they weren't talking to him as much. Sauske looked jealous and Hinata looked slightly worried for him but the rest looked confused, they glanced at him but said 's sisters on the other hand, they barely took their eyes off him for the rest of the journey they were constantly sending worried glances between each other. Naruto could see this and hated himself for making them worry but knew it was best that they didn't know, if they found out he would die soon… He didn't know how they would react but it wouldn't be pleasant for him.

They continued on their way until nightfall, they were now at the border of fire country and would enter the desert soon. They set up camp, Naruto knew he would probably be interrogated by Anko, Hokage's orders or not. He couldn't tell her; it was a bad idea to bring Tsunade into the equation but if he brought his sisters things would get worse. He went out to get firewood, he was getting kind of sick of everyone staring at him like that, especially his sisters. His team went with him partially because they were worried about him but mostly to see if they could find out about the mission. They found plenty of dry wood as it rarely rained this close to the desert.

Suddenly Naruto heard a soft whine coming from deep in the forest, he followed it and came across a sad sight. A young fox kit had its tail caught in a bear trap, it was bleeding heavily and looked very weak. Naruto went over to the poor thing and gently removed the bear trap, 'why would someone put a bear trap here?' he pondered as there were very few large animals this close to the border between the desert, mostly due to the lack of water. Maybe it was because of who his Kaa-chan was but he couldn't bear to see the poor fox suffer like that so he decided to help.

He knew that since most of the people in Konoha hated foxes that many of the group would like to kill the poor kit but Naruto wouldn't allow that. He would heal it at the least, he would probably then have to send the kit on its way. His Kaa-chan was currently in the mindscape so he could not ask for her opinion even if it was obvious what she would say.

The poor fox tried to back away from Naruto but fell to the ground and let out a pained yelp, Naruto walked over to the poor animal and tried to calm it down when it growled at him. He gently removed the bear trap from the tail but he saw the damage the trap had done to the fox's tail, the tail was bloody and had large puncture wounds from the trap, it was hanging limply behind the fox. When the fox calmed down Naruto pulled out his water canteen and cleaned the wound as best he could he then tore some of his shirt and tried to dress the wound. The fox was scared and when he applied pressure to the wound it growled but Naruto continued. With the wound dressed Naruto decided it was best to get Tsunade to heal the poor creature, he took off his jacket and as gently as possible lifted the fox into the jacket. He then created a few clones to gather the wood and brought the fox down to the camp.

When he arrived, most people were quite so he went up to Tsunade and showed her the fox, she agreed to heal him as she didn't mind the foxes. He saw Kakashi's glare but didn't care as the man's opinion mattered little to him, Asuma too scowled when he saw the fox but like Kakashi he paid him no heed. Tsunade quickly healed the foxes wound but informed Naruto that the poor animal had lost a lot of blood, Naruto asked if the fox could use any of the blood pills he had on him. He gave the fox one of the pills and noticed that it started looking healthier but Tsunade informed him that the fox would need to rest for a while. Naruto decided he would take care of the kit until it healed enough to be brought home and Tsunade said that it should be fine by tomorrow so Naruto would be caring for it for the night.

He looked at the fox again and took in how it looked, the fox itself had orange fur in a lighter shade than his Kaa-chans, the fur on the kits stomach was pure white as was the small patch around its eyes. The fox had large floppy ears which had white fur like its stomach on the inside. The foxes tail was orange like its fur but had a white tip at the end. The young fox had fallen asleep in and had made a home out of Naruto's jacket for the time being, Naruto brought the young fox to his tent and left a clone to look after it for the time being.

He went outside and ate his food but decided to keep some of it for his guest, he ended up keeping most of his meat for that purpose along with a few vegies. He wasn't sure what exactly foxes eat but he could guess, he went back to the tent to see his guest had awoken and was staring at his clone. When he entered the fox looked really confused and tilted its head to the side.

 **"Where did you get the kit from?"** He heard the voice of his Kaa-chan say, she had apparently come back from talking to the others early.

'In a bear trap, the kit's tail was caught in it so I had Baa-chan heal the damage done. I wasn't going to leave it like that.' Naruto replied.

 **"Well done, by the way, she's a she not an it."**

'Right then, I wasn't particularly sure, how did you know?'

 **"How do you know what a man looks like? It's just common sense most of the time, especially in kits."** Kurama replied sarcastically. Naruto dispelled his clone causing the kit to jump slightly in shock, Naruto then set down some of his food in front of her.

She sniffed at it suspiciously before biting some of the chicken, she then happily munched away on all of the food he had. She then smiled at him and then shocked him by speaking to him.

"Who are you, you smell like a fox but you don't look like one," she then tilted her head before smiling at him and asking, "did Kaa-chan send you?"

Naruto was shocked but replied, "no, how can you speak like a human?"

"Kaa-chan taught me silly, I can speak fox too." She then went into a series yips and barks which Naruto understood perfectly as, "it's easier to speak like this though because I learned it first."

"I can understand you like that." Naruto said using a similar series of yips and barks.

"Well you're speaking it, aren't you?" The fox replied and Naruto realised he had spoken like the fox had.

'Kaa-chan, can I speak like this because of you?' Naruto asked the kyuubi.

 **"No, at least none of my other Jinchuuriki could."** Kurama replied, **'this may be from his mother, maybe he can speak to animals. I guess he never actually tried to speak to any before but he could understand the Inuzuka dogs which he assumed was normal as some of them can talk.'**

"I didn't know I could speak fox." Naruto said, "My names Naruto, by the way, Naruto Uzumaki, what's yours?"

"My name is Kokatsu." The now named Kokatsu replied.

"Ok Kokatsu, why did you think your Kaa-chan sent me?" Naruto asked the young fox. "Because Kaa-chan is awesome, she's the leader of the clan." Kokatsu replied happily which caused both Naruto and Kurama to look surprised.

'No way, no way is my/ **his** luck that good.' Thought both Naruto and his Kaa-chan.

"By head of the clan do you mean head of the fox summoning clan?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, how did you guess?" The young fox asked surprised at what would be very obvious. "Can you read my mind? Oh, what am I thinking now?" 

"Do you know where your clan lives?" Naruto asked.

"That's not what I was thinking, but of course I do, why?" Kokatsu asked.

"Because my Kaa-chan is kyuubi, and my Kaa-chan needs to talk to your Kaa-chan if she's the boss of the contract." Naruto replied causing the young fox's eyes to widen and then seemingly sparkle with joy, she then jumped on Naruto and landed on his chest.

"Wow, really, can you turn into a fox like me? Does that mean you're like the other kitsune? How many tails do you have? What colour's your fur? Who's your Tou-san?" Kokatsu said, she then started speaking too fast for Naruto to comprehend.

"Calm down, calm down," Naruto said, "wait, what do you mean by kitsune?" 

"A kitsune's a fox who's not always a fox." Kokatsu said confusing Naruto even more.

 **"Kit, a kitsune is a fox who's mastered sage mode. You see fox sage mode is different to all other kinds of sage mode as it gives the user three different modes: Human mode, fox mode and kitsune mode. When a fox learns sage mode, they gain the ability to transform into a human state, they look completely human but still have the instincts and senses of foxes. The senses gained in this mode are much stronger than those Inuzukas. Fox mode for a fox is pretty much a standard sage transformation, it makes them stronger and more durable like all other sage modes. Kitsune mode is in between the two modes, the user gets the best of both worlds as they have tails claws, sometimes fur but it all depends."**

'Depends on what?'

 **"Well kitsune mode is more controlled, you see the user can control which side is the more dominant so to speak, a kitsune could have tails and claws only and be more human or they could have fur and a snout. It all depends on the user. Also, the transformation will last until the user changes it, if they run out if natural energy they are stuck in that mode until they re-enter sage mode. This is its biggest weakness. For a human like you though you'll need a certain amount of chakra, which you have more than enough of because of me. You see fox's measure their chakra by tails, I don't exactly count because I'm fully made of chakra, so one full tail is needed to transform otherwise your body couldn't physically handle the transformation."**

'How much chakra would a tail be worth by ninja standards.'

 **"A full one tail would be high chunin to low jonin; two tails would be elite jonin; three tails would be mid sanin; four tails would be mid kage; five tails would be high Kage; six tails would be your level but I don't think there has been anything above five tails that I've ever heard of."**

'Thanks, Kaa-chan.' Naruto looked to see that his young charge was now looking at him expectantly, "Sorry, I guess I zoned off."

"Don't worry, thank you for fixing my tail and saving me from the mean teeth." Kokatsu said.

"Don't worry about it, are you feeling better then?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"Yeah I feel much better thanks to the strange woman with glowing hands." Kokatsu said happily.

"That's Tsunade-baachan, she's a very good doctor." 

"Yeah, didn't like the other people though, they were looking at me scary, they looked mean."

"Yeah, sorry about them. They don't particularly like foxes."

"Why not?" She then tilted her head cutely.

"I don't know," Naruto lied, "but anyway, is there any chance your home is nearby? Then I'll be able to take you there." Naruto said.

"Yeah, it's not far from here, I can take you if you want, Kaa-chan might be worried about me though, I was gone for a while." The young fox said sadly.

"Well don't you worry, I'll bring you back home safe and sound." Naruto said with a wide grin. He then got her and put her into her 'bed' so that she would rest more, he then left a clone to look after her while talked with Tsunade about the possibility of him seeking out the fox clan.

"Baa-chan we need to talk." Naruto said as he went up to her, they went into her tent for privacy and he spoke, "The young fox I rescued is from the fox clan, she's the daughter of the boss."

At this Tsunade gasped, "are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes, she said that she could lead me to the home of the fox clan, which isn't far from here. It would be the perfect opportunity. It won't take that long." Naruto answered.

"I can't let you take that journey alone, and we can't all go to the fox's home, for one thing it would be disrespectful and for another the summoning clans tend to be secretive." Tsunade said.

"I can't pass up an opportunity like this, and I also can't leave Kokatsu alone. She's injured and there may be more traps on the way to her home. She's just a kit." Naruto said.

"Naruto," she sigh, "I don't like doing this but your right. You won't get an opportunity like this. You and two of the jonin will go to the fox den, they will stay out of the den while you contact the boss summon. We will then meet up at the hidden sand village." Tsunade said, Naruto agreed and decided to bring Anko and Kurenai. It was then decided that they would leave tomorrow when they set up camp, they couldn't leave now as the young fox needs to rest, when they made camp tomorrow Tsunade would inform the two jonin of their new job to guard Naruto as he completed his mission.

They would also be informed that Naruto would bring the fox with him. Naruto would tell them on the way of his ability to speak with foxes. Naruto then made his way to his tent where he dispelled his clone and the found that nothing had happened. He laid down in his sleeping bag and quickly went to sleep to enter the mindscape, once there he and his mother went quickly to the meeting place. Upon arrival, they were met with the other Jinchuuriki chatting happily.

"I can't believe we're already four contracts down, I mean that's half of them nearly done." Yugito said before Naruto spoke up.

"Five contracts down, you'll never guess who I just met." Naruto said.

"I don't know but what do you mean by five?" Fu said.

"I found the daughter of the leader of the fox clan." Naruto said causing all of the bijuu and Jinchuuriki to widen their eyes.

"But how?" Yagura said finally.

"I guess I'm just lucky, all we need to do is find the cats, which should be easy; the horses or dolphins, probably harder; the beetles or one of the other bug clans, much harder; and the bulls or octopus clans, which should be very difficult." Naruto said.

"Well I discovered that one of the clans in Iwa have one of the bug clans, apparently they stole it from Konoha but were humiliated by them at some point. It will be difficult but I may be able to steal it from them." Hana said.

"The cats have their own village which one of us will be able to go at some point." Yugito said.

"I shall go search for the horse contract," Roshi said, "I shall search for them as I have the most freedom, Utakata why don't you search for the dolphin contract as you are more comfortable in water than me also search for the squid and octopus clans. Begin your search in sea country, I shall search in land of earth."

"That is fine with me. Good luck." Utakata said before leaving the mindscape.

"Oh also, I can speak with the foxes." Naruto said.

"Well of course you can they're summons the speak like us." Roshi said whilst giving him a strange look which was given by all of the other occupants of the mindscape.

"No, I spoke like a fox. I could understand their language. She spoke to me using yips and barks and I could translate them, can you do the same with animals?" Naruto asked.

"No, I spoke with the apes and went to their homes but I couldn't understand what they were saying when they spoke their native language. It just sounded like a monkey speaking." Roshi said.

"None of you can speak like them?" Naruto asked and received a negative from the remaining Jinchuuriki.

"Has this ever happened before?" Naruto asked the bijuu.

 **"Not that we're aware of Naruto."** Kurama lied, Naruto's mother could but she was a goddess, they had made a promise not to tell anyone of the fact that she was a goddess.

"Well I better get some sleep then." Naruto said and left the mindscape.

"He still hasn't noticed yet I take it?" Yagura asked Kurama.

 **"No, I think the fox kit could smell the difference. She thought he was a kitsune. If he meets the fox elder they will tell him what is happening. If he doesn't then he will learn through the pain. It will hurt him more than it will you, I hope you know that."** Kurama said.

"What, why?!" Yugito asked, the others too were shocked at this revelation.

 **"The process will force him to relive his memories, he will not be the same. You will do the same, but you have not suffered as much as him. That is why we are reluctant to do this."** Kurama informed them, this caused the others to feel scared for their little brother.

After a silence Hana suddenly spoke up, "it needs to be done, the alternative is something I cannot live with, even if he hates me he will continue on and may survive." Tears started to appear at the corner of her eyes. They were all silent as they each felt pain for their brother, they all justified it with the chance of his survival. They knew he may never forgive them but knew that in the end if he lived that would be all that mattered.

(Next day)

Naruto awoke and heard the noise of his young companion as she slept, she sounded content and happy in her sleep. He smiled lightly at the innocence of the young fox, Naruto then woke up the fox and laughed as she struggled to sleep even when he woke her. He finally removed the jacket from her and she awoke.

"Why did you take the warm thing away?" She asked sleepily.

"Why have to get up Kokatsu-chan, you're going home today." Naruto said.

"Ok, um, can you carry me. You're warm and cuddly and there's loads of room in your fur." Kokatsu asked.

"It's my jacket not fur, and sure you can." Naruto replied causing the young fox to grin at him.

They both then got up and went outside, Naruto saw that they were the first up and simply started on breakfast for the entire group. Slowly people started to come out of their tents at the smell of breakfast, they sat there and waited for Naruto to finish and he quickly served the food. They were mostly surprised at how good the food was, his sisters already knew though as they had been to his house for food. Anko in particular would randomly show up and eat with him for the chance of having some of his food.

"This is really good Naruto; how do you know how to cook?" Ino asked after finishing.

"I had to pick it up, I live alone mostly. I don't just live on ramen." Naruto said. They continued conversing until she noticed Naruto was feeding some of his food to… his chest? No there must be something in there.

"What's that in your jacket?" Ino asked and everyone turned around, now curious.

"Oh this, this is Kokatsu, I'm taking care of her for now." He said while the young fox put her head out of the inside pocket of Naruto's jacket she was currently occupying and yipped happily at them.

This caused various reactions around the group, Tsunade, Hinata, Kurenai and Anko smiled at the cute animal; Neji, Shino and Shikamaru didn't seem to react at all; Asuma and Kakashi scowled slightly at the fox; Tenten and Choji looked slightly annoyed at the young animal which was strange since the Akamichi never seemed like the type to be annoyed at anything; Sakura looked really angry at the young animal; Yugao's reaction was hidden by her mask; Lee looked surprised but then had a small look of resentment toward the animal but was strangely quiet; Gai seemed oddly subdued and sombre; Kiba growled and looked angry and Akamaru barked angrily which Naruto somehow translated like he had with the fox as "why is a fox here?"; Ino looked angry but Naruto could see some sadness in her eyes; Sauske looked ready to fire a jutsu off at the young animal.

"Would you stop that you're scaring her, why are you glaring like that?" Naruto asked those who looked annoyed at the animal, it was true though the young kit looked terrified of all of the negative attention.

"Foxes are evil Naruto," Kiba began, "the kyuubi's proof of that."

This caused Naruto to look annoyed but a look from Tsunade told him not to say something about his 'Kaa-chan'. "Oh yeah, so one fox attacks and you think all of them are evil? That's pathetic, especially since you're going to blame her, she's only, how old are you?"

Naruto asked shocking all of the others that he could speak to her, Akamaru and Kiba especially as they could understand that to be similar to the language of the dogs, not enough that they could understand though. "I'm three." Kokatsu replied.

"She's only three years, are you really going to blame a three-year-old for something done by someone else?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, you can talk with it." Kakashi asked in shock.

"She's a her not an it but yeah I can talk with her." Naruto replied.

"How?" Kiba asked.

"Same as you I guess; I can also understand your mutt who needs to be nicer." Naruto said which shocked both Kiba and Akamaru.

"So, are you going to tell me why you don't like her?"

"Kyuubi destroyed my-" Ino began.

"And she'd not Kyuubi, if you're going to blame her for something out of her control you are worse than Kyuubi." Naruto interrupted.

"Why are you caring for her anyway, it's a wild animal it shouldn't be here." Kiba said.

"Well, she needed help. She was caught in a bear trap and needed medical help, I promised to bring her home as well which happens to be in the direction of Suna." Naruto said.

"So, it was you that disarmed my trap, why did you do that, she could have made good lunch?" Kiba said.

"Your trap, who brings a bear trap with them, and why would you plant it here, there are no animals big enough native to here to be caught in this trap." Naruto asked annoyed.

"Well it caught her." Kiba replied.

"That's because she's not from here. Now none of you will hurt her or I will rain hell upon you." Naruto said.

"As if you could hurt me." Kakashi said arrogantly.

"Oh yeah, I beat Garra and a bijuu, something you could never hope to achieve especially without your pink eye. You may be considered a genius but without the sharingan you are an average jonin." Naruto said.

"Now is not the time for this." Tsunade interrupted, "it is time we left, pack up and let's go."

They all left and packed their things, ten minutes later they were on the road and chatting away with each other, Naruto was left alone and was simply chatting with Kokatsu in her native tongue so that the others couldn't understand or learn that she was a summon by speaking human. Soon night came and they set their tents out, Naruto and Kokatsu quickly got ready to leave and Naruto was informed that her den was only a half hour away. Tsunade informed Kurenai and Anko that they would guard Naruto without saying why or where, they quickly left and, as soon as they were far enough away from the camp the two girls asked for information on both the last mission and this one.

"Ok, Naruto answer our questions, where did you go and who were them people you met with? Also, where are we going?" Anko asked.

"I can't tell you the first question, as for the second, we are headed to Kokatsu's den." Naruto replied.

"Wait, you're putting yourself in danger for a fox?" Kurenai asked.

"No, well yes but that's not the only reason. I'm going to talk with the boss of the fox summons, Kokatsu just so happens to be her daughter." Naruto replied shocking the two jonin.

"What?" Anko asked.

"I'm going to talk with the boss of the summons for the fox clan. You are going to wait outside." Naruto said.

"No, we aren't we won't leave you at any point you're in danger! Akatsuki is hunting you down." Kurenai said.

"How do you know of Akatsuki?" Naruto asked.

"Tsunade told us when you were on your mission." Anko said.

"What!? Did she tell the others about Kaa-chan?" Naruto asked horrified.

"No, she told them it had to do with your 'bloodline' they still don't know." Kurenai said causing Naruto to calm down. "Which is why you now need to tell us what happened on that mission, we can't help if you don't know."

"It is a secret for a reason, the rank is needed to keep anyone from knowing. Only a hand full of people know of it, and only two are in the village, me and Tsunade."

"Why is it that important?" Anko asked.

"It has to do with my survival, if the wrong person found out it would lead to my death." Naruto said, shocking the two of them.

"Do you not trust us?" Anko asked quietly.

"I do, it's just… I got in enough trouble telling Tsunade, the only reason she knows is because she currently has the power to help with it. If I could I would tell you though." Naruto said.

"Wait, this is your secret? Not some Hokage secret?" Anko asked incredulously.

"Yeah, not even the third knew." Naruto said.

"Why is it so secretive?" Anko asked, "and who else knows?"

"It is so secretive because it involves ways to hurt Jinchuuriki permanently and quite easily." Naruto said, it wasn't the full lie as it did involve sage chakra but it wasn't a lie. He knew Zetsu wasn't there, this shocked the two of them and guessed that they understood how sever that was, "I can't say as Akatsuki have ears everywhere."

"But why did you trust Tsunade-sama if you didn't trust the third?" Anko asked.

"For one thing, she may have a means of combating it, for another Orochimaru has access to it and, though he doesn't know it, could kill me." Naruto replied causing Anko to clench her fists at the thought of Orochimaru killing her otouto.

"We understand Naruto, just don't worry us please." Kurenai said.

"Ok." Naruto said, they soon made their way to the fox den and Kurenai and Anko waited outside as they agreed. The fox den was currently a hole in the ground which was just big enough for Naruto to fit through. Once he made it through he asked Kokatsu about the size of it:

"Well, that's the small way in, Kaa-chan uses the big one normally but there are always bossy people there who say I'm not allowed to go outside so I usually sneak out this one." 

At this Naruto sweat dropped. They soon made their way to a dark tunnel which Naruto could barely see in, Naruto followed it but it seemed to be getting smaller to the point where he had to crawl to get through it. Naruto was getting uncomfortable until he saw I light at the end of the tunnel, it started to get bigger. The exit got closer and closer until they made it through, Naruto was amazed at the sight in front of him.

There were trees everywhere and it seemed to be dense forest, he could see holes in the ground everywhere and he could see some foxes poke their heads out but hid in their holes when they saw him look at them. Kokatsu led him out of the forest and he saw that the climate changed, Naruto continued to follow and the trees began to thin out until he came to a grassy plain. He saw that there seemed to be a sort of temple in front of him, he also noticed that there were now giant foxes lying down asleep.

They were all huge and he could see various amounts of tails on each of them but the majority had three or four tails. There were a few with two but they were the smallest being only about the size of horses. He came to the realisation that the more tails the bigger they were. The biggest one he saw was about as tall as a tree when standing fully, Naruto was led quickly through the large group of foxes and they came to a large hole in the ground. Kokatsu told him to go down the hole which he noticed didn't just drop down thankfully. Naruto slowly went into the cave like hole which he assumed was a den for one of the giant foxes.

Naruto entered the den and heard the sound of a large voice shouting at people, Kokatsu brightened up at the voice but then gained a scared look and shook slightly. Naruto looked at her quizzically and she answered his unasked question. "That's Kaa-chan, she sounds angry though, I think we should probably run away." The young fox said, which caused Naruto to sweat slightly.

"I'm afraid we can't, I have to go back soon, besides we're here now." Naruto said trying not to sound scared.

"Could you hold me please?"

"Sure, why though?"

"So that if Kaa-chan tries to grab me she'll grab you and I might have a chance to escape." Naruto started to sweat slightly but still let the young kit jump into his arms and then hide in 'her' pocket. They continued on until they could hear what was being said by the voice, it was speaking in the fox's tongue and was quite easy to hear as it was very loud.

 **"What do you mean 'you can't find her' you've been looking for her for weeks?"**

"It's not that we can't find her it's just-" a second voice spoke up but was interrupted by the first voice.

 **"Just what? You are the best at tracking out of all of us!"**

"We found some of her blood." This caused the first voice to stop and several gasps were heard.

"There was evidence of a trap being laid there, we also found a clump of her fur. It was hers definitely. We also tracked some footprints going to that spot, three pairs all human. If she's not… gone, then she's with a human and that may be worse." The voice finished. By now both Naruto and Kokatsu could hear several sobs coming from the room in front of them. Naruto realised they must be talking about the young kit he saved from Kiba's trap.

"Also, they were ninja, from Konoha if the smell indicates, we tracked them to a clearing which clearly had a camp set up. The tracks are only a day old but she is likely alive as her scent continued but there is a chance that one of them spent enough time around her or… she was kept as a… trophy. I'm sorry."

 **"Th-th-ank you, please keep looking for my daughter."** The voice said Naruto suddenly came to a corner in the tunnel and turned it to find a large cavern, inside there were a few torches around it. He could see clearly and was amazed at the sight. There was a fox in the middle of the cavern that was huge, it nearly filled the cavern he was in and would have if it stood tall, this fox looked exactly like Kokatsu except for the size. Naruto then took note that this fox had seven tails waving behind it, though it was nowhere near the size of his Kaa-chan he was amazed. Naruto looked around and saw several more foxes but none of them had tails above four, suddenly all the attention in the room was on him.

 **"Who are you and how did you get here human?"** The fox in the centre of the room spoke.

"I'm-" Naruto began but was cut off by one of the three tailed foxes.

"Kaa-chan! He smells of Kokatsu! He must have been the one to take her!"

 **"What! Where is she?! Where is my daughter, if you've harmed her I will tear you apart!"** Naruto began to reach for the pocket with Kokatsu in it but she was refusing to come out

"Look out Kaa-chan! He's reaching for a weapon!" The same fox shouted. Suddenly the fox in the middle of the room pounced at him and wrapped each of his limbs with one of her tails.

 **"Where is my daughter!? Speak ningen!"**

"Please calm down." Naruto began, "She's in my pocket but is scared."

 **"What did you do to her to make her scared? Did you torture her?!"** This was punctuated with each of the tails around his limbs tightening to the point where they were about to break.

"No! I haven't hurt her, she got scared when she heard you shouting." Naruto said but the grip didn't loosen on his limbs.

 **"Why would she be scared of me? Did you bring her here to threaten me with?"**

"No, I brought her here because she was hurt." Naruto replied and was relieved to feel the tails loosening but they still held onto him. "Kokatsu, please come out. Your Kaa-chan isn't angry anymore, and she kind of has a strong grip. Could you hurry, you see me and my limbs, well, we're kind of attached." Naruto asked pleadingly.

"Are you sure." Came the muffled voice of Kokatsu.

Naruto looked up at the looming face of Kokatsu's mother, she looked very angry.

"She's not angry at you, she's a bit angry at me though so you might want to come out and you know, not be in my pocket." Naruto said quite desperately.

"Ok, I'm coming." She said before poking her head out of his jacket and looking at Naruto's form. Her mother visibly relaxed and then quickly looked happy and Kokatsu fully removed herself from Naruto's pocket and sat on his shoulder, "err, hi Kaa-chan." She said quietly.

One of the tails not holding Naruto lifted the much smaller fox up onto her tail where she shuffled about nervously, after a few seconds she was brought close and the bigger fox was sobbing happily. **"Oh, I missed you so much, where have you been."** She muttered between sobs as she was reunited with her daughter. Naruto was suddenly dropped from the height of about five metres and landed on the ground with a grunt. He was quickly surrounded by several foxes with tails ranging from two to four all of which were growling menacingly at him. He stayed where he was until the mother and daughter being reunited had subsided. **"Thank you for bringing my daughter back to me, what is your name ningen."** The large fox asked.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto replied.

 **"Are you ok, he didn't hurt you at all did he? Are you injured? Have you been eating ok? Is it true, that he hasn't hurt you?"** The large fox switched language to insure the privacy not knowing Naruto could understand her, **"If that ningen did hurt you I will tear him to shreds, don't worry humans can't speak fox."**

"Err, sorry, but, well, I, kind of might be able to speak fox." Naruto said shocking all of the occupants of the room.

 **"H-h-how? How can a human speak our language?"** The large fox asked him.

"I think it has something to do with Kaa-chan. She's the kyuubi, I'm a Jinchuuriki by the way." Naruto said, this caused the large fox to look even more shocked.

 **"K-k-kyub-b-b-i-i-s-a-a-a-m-m-a?"** The large fox asked stuttering.

"Yeah, Kaa-chan got sealed inside me when I was born, you see she's the other reason I came here myself, you see, Kaa-chan and the other bijuu along with the other bijuu came to an agreement…" Naruto then went on to explain the nature of the agreement shocking the current boss of the contract, he finally asked for her permission for him and the other Jinchuuriki to sign the contract.

 **"I agree with these terms as long as only you are the only one summoning us, we agree to help teach our sage mode to help the others, unfortunately fox sage mode is different they may be able to learn it but there are difficulties with our sage mode that other animals do not possess, I am unsure if these will affect your brothers and sister's due to their interaction with the other bijuu as they may now possess different qualities. We will teach them regardless, you should have a higher affinity towards fox sage mode though."**

"Thank you, I look forward to learning from you. Kaa-chan explained some things about fox sage mode." Naruto said.

 **"Very well. You have my thanks for saving my daughter Naruto Uzumaki, I am now in your debt. My name is Shinrin, you may call upon me and my brethren but know that some of us are quite temperamental."**

"Thank you, but you needn't worry about any debts, as far as I'm concerned allowing me to sign the contract is enough. I am sorry but I must leave now." Naruto left and made his way to the exit, at this point many of the foxes who his from him at first were comfortable enough not to hide a few even came out of their dens curiously.

He came to the exit and quickly met up with his sisters, he explained that the contract went well, they soon made it back to camp and Naruto informed Tsunade that the mission was completed. The next day they made it to the dessert and Tsunade decided that they should go at shinobi speeds as none of them particularly liked the dessert and wanted to get to the village quickly. They would be there by the next day if they kept up the pace they were going at; the camp this night was much quieter as no one had much to say.

The next day they made it to the sand village and Tsunade dealt with the politics, the others were informed that they may explore the village, Naruto set to work looking for Garra and immediately snuck off from the others. He was unaware that the other genin and Shikamaru had noticed his absence and followed him, Kiba followed his scent and they soon found him chatting to the insane sand nin he defeated in the chunin exams.

"What are they talking about?" Sakura whispered.

"I don't know, let's get closer, we'll be able to hear better." Ino replied. They came closer and managed to pick up a few words of what they were speaking, something about a 'Jinchuuriki' whatever that was. They went inside a building and both Neji and Hinata tried to use their byakugan's, they saw Naruto put up a seal in the room he was in and found that their eyes could still not penetrate it.

They sighed and turned to the others who were looking expectantly. "I'm sorry but he put up a seal to block everything off, we can't see them." Neji said.

"What do you think they're doing, and what's a Jinchuuriki?" Choji asked.

"I don't know; I think I've heard that word before though I don't know where." Shikamaru sighed, Naruto was an enigma he couldn't solve. Every time he learned something it would get even more confusing.

"Maybe we can find something in the library, I wonder if there is one here in Suna we can use." Sakura said.

"I think we passed one on the way here, we should head there." Neji said and they went to see if they could find out what that word meant. They came to the library and set to work finding out what the word meant. They couldn't find anything in the dictionary but they did find out what it literally meant, 'the power of human sacrifice' this caused everyone to shudder involuntarily, maybe Naruto and Garra were involved in a cult or something. This thought caused everyone to shiver even in the heat of the dessert.

Shino eventually found a history book that mentioned the word in the glossary, he called everyone over and went to the contents page to find where it was listed. The word was listed under the bijuu.

"Why would it have anything to do with the bijuu." Sakura muttered aloud. They set about finding the page and as they got closer they came to an entry about the bijuu, it started with a brief summary that they were chakra given form. Apparently, some legends said that they were part of the original source of chakra and they eventually came to the story of the sage of six paths.

"The sage of six paths fought the juubi and eventually beat it, he then split its power into nine fragments and created the bijuu." Shikamaru read, "eventually the time of his death came and he split his power giving his eldest child the power of his eyes and his youngest the power of his body. The two then set out to create clans."

"This can't be true can it, does it say which clans were created or where they were created?" Sakura asked.

"The Uchiha and the Senju." Sauske said.

"What?" asked Ino.

"In my clan's history, we are descended from the sage of six paths, the Senju inherited his body while the Uchiha inherited his eyes." Sauske explained.

"Is it true?" Hinata asked.

"I don't know, that is what I was taught though." Sauske said, "keep reading."

"The bijuu are each said to be powerful masses of chakra comparable to a natural disaster, they cause chaos and destruction where they go and cannot be stopped without creating a… Jinchuuriki." Shikamaru read as his eyebrows raised in confusion, these Jinchuuriki could stop bijuu. Shikamaru turned to the next page and both Sauske and Sakura inhaled deeply in fear.

"That's what Garra turned into." Sauske said this caused the others to gasp.

"Is he a bijuu? Then maybe Naruto learned how to make a Jinchuuriki, he defeated Garra." Sakura said in awe.

"See if you can find out what it is, maybe it's a powerful weapon that only some people can make, maybe that's why Akatsuki are after Naruto." Choji said.

"But what is that thing?" Tenten asked.

"That is the one tail, it is found here in Suna and it can control sand, like Garra. It is said that it can eat souls when the Jinchuuriki sleeps so they are never allowed to sleep!" Shikamaru read.

"Is that the risk of having a Jinchuuriki, wait Naruto must have used the Jinchuuriki on him. Can Naruto not sleep anymore because of Garra, maybe that's what they are talking about." Ino said.

"Poor Naruto-kun," Hinata said, "he risked his very soul to save the village."

This caused the others to widen their eyes, "maybe that's what it means by the sacrifice in the name." She commented.

"Wait if that is only for the one tailed, what must the rest be like. Maybe this is how the Yondaime killed the kyuubi, it cost him his life." Sakura theorised.

"So, what does that mean for Naruto, is that what he has to do the S-rank missions for?" Tenten asked.

"Read on we'll find out more." Sauske urged.

"The two-tailed hell cat," Shikamaru continued looking at a picture of a cat made of blue flames, "not much is known about it, look there are more all nine of them." Shikamaru said and went from page to page looking at the different bijuu until they came to the final entry.

"The Kyuubi." Shikamaru whispered and suddenly everyone there gained hate and fear filled looks. "The nine-tailed fox was said to be able to cause tsunamis and earthquakes with a flick of a tail, maybe that is the reason Naruto was so defensive of the fox. Maybe it's because he knows not to blame the species for what their bijuu has done." Shikamaru muttered and suddenly they all felt bad for being mean to the fox Naruto learned to talk with.

"Interesting book you've got there," a voice they all recognised spoke from behind them, "it's a shame most of it is wrong though." They all turned to see Naruto standing behind them.

"Naruto," Sakura said, "h-how long have you been here?"

"Since just before you found the book, it is full of inaccuracies for example there was a third son of the sage of six paths, he went on to create another clan which has survived through the ages about the same as the Uchiha and Senju."

"What are you talking about?" Sauske sounded surprised.

"Well, the Uchiha and Senju fought over who was the rightful heir and then their clans went on to hold a grudge up until recently the last clan just left, they went and found themselves a home and founded their own village, then when the others started creating ninja villages this village went on to make theirs a ninja one too as protection. They became allies with Konoha before the first shinobi war but their village was destroyed in the third war. They took on a combined attack from Iwa and Kumo who each sent most of their forces, that village is the reason Konoha came out in top as they took out the majority of the forces. The clan that founded the village then scattered and now live all over the world."

"What is the name of this clan, and why didn't we hear about them in the academy?" Sauske asked.

"Well you didn't hear about them in the academy, mostly because of me. The council never wanted me to have access to my clan's things. Their name, Uzumaki." Naruto said causing all of them to gasp slightly and look shocked. "Anyway, you're going to want to forget about all of that, your assumptions are very bad by the way, don't guess about things that big when you know very little about it. And don't go asking people back in the leaf about Jinchuuriki, they get touchy at that." He then left leaving all of them confused.

'Who are you Naruto?' They all thought.

(In Atlantis)

Poseidon sat on his throne in Atlantis, he thought of his daughter, the one in the land of ninja. He left her with a mother, surely, she would raise the child, nothing bad would happen to his little girl. He followed the law though, he was one of the gods who went to that realm with his godly power, he met a young woman there and found out she was with child. He left after a few months like the rules required him to but he remembered visiting her while the doorway was still open, she was about a half a year old and he loved her already.

Surely Artemis made a mistake when it came to his daughter, she had a mother to protect her. He decided he would ask Artemis of the fate of his daughter, it would do no harm to anyone. So, he left his throne and went to her camp, when he arrived she seemed to be expecting him, he was curious to know if she knew of his visit.

"Hello uncle, I take it you wish to know of your daughter." Artemis said.

"Yes, she was about five when you died right?" Poseidon asked.

"Yeah, she was a very nice girl. I remember we celebrated her fourth birthday she was so happy that day, I never got to see her fifth due to the week connection because of my pregnancy. She was so happy that day, we couldn't do much but we played games and had a lot of fun. I think she thought I was her big sister."

"What of her mother?" Poseidon asked nervously.

"Her _mother_ left after she found out her daughter had become a Jinchuuriki, the poor girl was terrified, when she first entered the mind scape she was scared of everyone and kept begging for her mother to help her. It was her first word I think. It was all she said to us. We eventually managed to calm down, I remember that first night, she held onto me for hours crying." Artemis said sadly.

"What was she like?" Poseidon asked but tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

"She was very shy, she used to hide behind me when someone made a loud noise in the mindscape. But she also tried to stay happy, she didn't talk much and preferred to just sit and look at the lakes in Isobu's part of the mindscape. She loved the ocean, she would come over to me and ask me to take her there one day. She was getting stronger when I managed to meet her, she tried to be more independent but would always come to me if she was scared or needed help. You would have loved her."

"Could you tell me more about her?" Artemis nodded and told her stories of a young Yagura.


	14. Chapter 14

(With Naruto)

Naruto left the others but made sure to take that book away from them, he read to the next page and saw that it gave a detailed explanation of what a Jinchuuriki is, it was a good thing he stopped them when he did otherwise they would know and would hate and fear him like the rest. After giving Garra the contracts he had gone to see where the others went and were surprised to find them researching bijuu and Jinchuuriki.

Their guesswork was almost laughable even considering that they knew next to nothing, he went on his way and gave the book to Garra. He asked that he return it to the library when he and his group had left. He met up with Tsunade and the other jonin and found that everything was sorted, they now needed to return but would stay the night in the Kazekage tower. When the genin found out they were terrified at the thought of going anywhere near Garra as, due to being son of the kazekage, he would live there.

They met with Garra's brother and sister, Kankuro and Temari, but Garra was gone. Naruto was quite sad at the fact that he wasn't here but Temari and Kankuro explained he would show up eventually which terrified the rookie nine and Gai's team with the exception of Naruto. They were brought to their rooms and found that they would each have a room each due to the size of the mansion. Naruto offered to take the room next to Garra's to the other rookie's relief as none of them wanted to be anywhere near the psychopath, they soon went to bed but Naruto waited for Garra to come to his room as they agreed upon earlier. Garra arrived in the room eventually and Naruto put up privacy seals around the room.

"Hey Garra, how are you?" Naruto asked.

"I am fine, and you?" Garra asked.

"Fine. Have you tried to give your family a chance?"

"I have tried, it has been difficult. They still fear me, I haven't threatened them though and they do look a lot calmer around me. I'll keep trying though."

"Well done, it will be hard but you can do it. Thank you for trying though."

"Is that all you wanted to say?"

"No, there is something else we must discuss. Garra, you and the others have avoided it for long enough, what is this new plan that you have all decided without me?"

"I… I can't tell you, I'm sorry."

"That's all any of you have said to me, this is not something you can decide without me. Now tell me Garra."

"Then sacrificing yourself is? We won't let you suffer any more for our sake."

"That is my life that **I** make choices about not you. What choice have you made exactly?"

"I can't tell you, I'm sorry brother."

"Don't 'brother' me, if you are going to make choices like that without my consent you're no worse than the villages who make us to be their weapons."

"You're wrong, we're doing this to help you, you have to understand…"

"Understand what? That you're all going behind my back to do something you know I'll disagree with and when I find out you still don't tell me."

"Just listen-"

"No, you listen Garra. You say we are above the 'humans' then why have we resorted to doing what they do? Hmm, why are you going against my life choice."

"Because we love you!" Garra screamed, for the first time in years tears started to form in his eyes, "because you mean so much to us that we can't bear to see you suffer. This is for you, we can't let you sacrifice your life, your soul, you not us you. That is how we are different, we didn't tell you because it is for the best."

"But Garra-"

"But nothing. If you sacrifice your life how do you think we'd react? In fact, put yourself in our position, what would you do if killing me was the only way for us all to survive? Would you let me die?"

"No! I could never let you die."

"Then we can't let you die either. Please Naruto, brother, trust us."

"Fine, I won't ask about it, but please tell me the risk isn't too high. What are the chances of my survival if it works?"

"I don't know." Garra lied, "but they're probably high."

"And please tell me the cost won't cost any of you your lives, will it?"

"No, it won't cost that much." 'The cost will be much greater for all of us, you especially.'

"Well, ok then. I better go now, goodbye brother." Naruto then left and went to his room for sleep while Garra sat up wondering if they were doing the right thing. He decided that a world without Naruto was much worse than a world where Naruto hated him.

The next day the Konoha ninja left the village and began the journey back home, they were going at ninja speed now but had to go at genin level due to the fact that most of them were genin. They would arrive much quicker than their original trip. The group were back in the trees now and were quickly heading towards Konoha when Naruto, the jonin and Tsunade sensed a familiar chakra signature.

"Oh, Baa-chan I forgot, I should probably update the two of them with our new contract. I thought they would have left by now." Naruto said to Tsunade.

"Right, the rest of you hold back until Naruto returns." Tsunade said.

"Tsunade-sama, surely he would be safer if the one or two of us went with like with the second mission." Anko said pleadingly, "we would wait far enough away."

"No, I'm afraid not. The identities of these two individuals must remain a secret only Naruto knows, I myself am unsure as to the exact identities of the two of them." Which was true as Naruto hadn't actually said which Jinchuuriki he would meet up with, sure she could guess but considering there were only seven options as Garra was in the hidden sand village she would be likely to be right. Naruto was hopping from tree to tree, he approached his brothers quickly and soon saw them. Utakata was sitting in a tree branch and was absentmindedly blowing bubbles, Roshi was sitting in a meditative pose.

When Naruto appeared they, both turned and Utakata smiled whilst Roshi just grinned, he came over and affectionately ruffled Naruto's hair. "I thought I wouldn't get to give you this one, I thought you would be gone by the time we made our return journey." Naruto said.

"Yeah, well we stayed in the area and when we heard about your newly acquired contract we decided to stay, besides, how could we miss the chance to see you again?" Roshi said with a smirk.

"Thanks, should we get started?" Naruto asked and at their nods they put seals around them so they couldn't be spotted, Naruto quickly did the summoning ritual and a fox appeared, but not just any fox, it was Kokatsu.

"Kokatsu, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"Because you summoned me silly." Kokatsu replied with a giggle.

"But why were you the one who was summoned? I was looking for the holder of the contract to help with our deal." Naruto said confused.

Kokatsu giggled, "kaa-chan said you would probably summon me and decided to make me your personal summon, she said if I held onto the contract that I would eventually be summoned so she gave it to me. So why did you summon me? Are we going on an adventure? Oh, can we be pirates? Will we fight monsters? Oh, I know, monster pirates! So, are we?" the young fox said causing Naruto and his companions to sweat drop slightly.

"No Kokatsu, my brothers are here to sign the scroll, can I borrow it for a few minutes?" Naruto asked causing the young fox to look sad, "but hey, if you want you can stay with me for a while and we'll play." He said causing the fox to nod happily and give Naruto the scroll to Utakata who signed it and handed it to Roshi.

"Thank you, now we are going to head back to the camp and we can play a game along the way." Naruto said causing the fox to jump about happily, "how about tag?" he said and received a nod of happiness, "ok, well Roshi, Utakata I must leave now," he said to his brothers before turning to the young fox and tapping her lightly on the back, "you're it." He said and shot off into the bushes at a speed she could handle, she yelped indignantly before rushing after him. They played their game with Naruto going slow enough to allow her to win from time to time, they neared the camp and Naruto said they would have to finish up now and, after some pouting, they finished their game and made it into the camp.

Naruto picked Kokatsu up and set her on his shoulders and Naruto made it back to camp, the others looked at him confused at the appearance of the young fox from before. All of the genin thought over Naruto's words from before and decided to be nice to the kit as she had nothing to do with the kyuubi attack.

"Hey Naruto, who's your friend?" Anko asked.

"This is Kokatsu, say hi." He told his personal summon.

"Hi, err I'm Kokatsu." She said and shocked everyone except Tsunade who knew she could talk.

"You can talk!" Sakura exclaimed loudly.

"Yeah, so can you. Why are you so amazed by this?" Kokatsu replied whilst tilting her head to the side causing all of the females, and some of the males, to succumb to her cuteness and start to say 'aww', Naruto looked at them weird.

"They don't normally see a fox talk Katsu-chan." Naruto said.

"Really?" Kokatsu asked, surprised.

"Yeah, there aren't that many outside of your clan, in fact I don't think that there are any." Naruto said. "Anyway, Katsu-chan here is my personal summon and wants to travel with us for a while." Naruto said, this shocked the jonin and some of the rookies but the others looked confused.

"What's a summon?" Ino asked.

"A summon is an animal that the summoner, me, has signed a contract with." Naruto said, "the summon can be summoned using a jutsu called the summoning jutsu."

"Why would you want to summon a fox?" Sakura asked.

"Because foxes are awesome!" Naruto said which caused Kokatsu to agree by nodding vigorously in agreement.

"Ok, but what use would this runt be in a fight?" Sauske asked.

"I wouldn't insult Katsu-chan, her mother is the leader of her clan and is bigger than the buildings in Konoha, she would crush you like a bug." Naruto said causing many to pale.

"Ok, but why would she let you sign a contract with her?" Kiba asked.

"Because I saved Katsu-chan here from a certain idiot's trap, she was going to hunt down and mercilessly slaughter whoever her daughter's murderer was." Naruto said causing Kiba to pale again.

"So, are we leaving or will we stay the night?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, we will leave now, come along we will be at Konoha by tomorrow." Tsunade said and they began moving again.

Eventually Kokatsu began to get bored and began playing a game, "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with L." She said. "Hmm," Naruto said, "is it a leaf?" He said getting an affirmative nod from the fox, "ok, I spy…" The game continued for a while before Kokatsu was stuck on a particularly hard word beginning with B.

Suddenly, "is it bark, Naruto?" asked Ino, who got a confused look from Naruto before nodding. "Yeah, we did it Kokatsu-chan, it's my turn now. Ok I spy with my little I something beginning with K" She said and Kokatsu gained a thoughtful look.

"Is it me?" she asked and gained an affirmative nod from Ino. Naruto smiled at the interaction and eventually all of the rookies, except Sauske, were playing with the fox. Soon they stopped and made up a camp, when night came Naruto set her to bed, which was his jacket and sat out beside the fire as it was his turn to guard the camp.

Suddenly he heard a noise from one of the tents and turned to see Ino come out of her tent and look at him, she came over and sat beside him. They sat there in silence for a bit before Ino spoke up. "I'm sorry, about being so mean to Kokatsu-chan before." She started, "you see, my clan lost a lot in the kyuubi attack, we aren't smart like the Nara's or strong like the Akamichi. We're probably the weakest clan in Konoha and we don't have that many members, during the attack many of us died trying to fight the beast. Some of the members of our clan tried using our mind jutsu on it but most of them didn't work, we found that one of our jutsu worked. The mind body switch technique." Naruto looked confused, "the technique itself allows users to enter the mind of their victim, when we one of my clan members successfully entered the kyuubi's mind the rest assumed that their numbers would prove useful all tried to enter its mind. It didn't work. The kyuubi destroyed their minds and tore apart their souls. A handful managed to end the jutsu and escape but not without scars. My aunt was one of the ones who survived. She hasn't left our clan home since the attack; her chakra system was permanently torn apart and she felt the hatred of the kyuubi head on. She lost her mind, something that from our clan is a fate worse than death. She was the luckiest to escape, the others either killed themselves or were forced into asylums. This is why I don't like foxes." She said and tears had started to crawl down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I know it must be hard, but please don't blame Kokatsu for your loss. She is an innocent in this, most of the foxes are. I've seen what happens to foxes in the village, they are killed by the civilians and some shinobi. I won't let Kokatsu face the same fate." Naruto said, she then brought him into a hug and he winced slightly and shivered at the contact.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun." Ino said quietly, she then held him tightly and Naruto shook slightly.

"Um, I-I-Ino-chan, c-could you let go please?" Naruto asked, berating himself for stuttering.

"Why, what's wrong Naruto-kun, afraid of little old me?" Ino asked giggling slightly, not knowing that was actually the truth. She held him closer and Naruto shook more and she finally took notice. "What's wrong, are you ok?" she said and pulled away to see him look terrified of her and shaking much more.

"Naruto-kun, what's wrong talk to me." She said, fearing she had hurt him in some way.

"I-I-I'm f-f-fine." Naruto finally stuttered out.

"No, you're not, you're shaking like a leaf. Are you sick?" She asked worriedly and tried to put her hand to his head but he flinched away from her touch. "What's wrong? You need to tell me." She said trying to sound more forceful.

"D-d-d-don't w-w-worry, p-p-please just s-s-stay back." Naruto said stuttering even more as he inched away from her and she did as he asked. He managed to calm down his breathing, she sat there a few feet away looking at him worried. "Sorry Ino-chan," he said once he had calmed down, "I'm slightly Haphephobic. It's ok most of the time but I just don't like being touched by most people. My sisters and Tsunade are the exceptions, Tsunade because she saved my life."

"Sorry, I didn't know." Ino said, she had no idea that someone like Naruto could be scared to be near other people like that. "I don't want to intrude but could you tell me why, my clan know a lot about the mind and we tend to be natural therapists. I won't tell anyone; I might be able to help you."

"Thanks, but I'd rather not say, it involves an incident that happened years ago. I got over it with help, for the most part, but I can't be too close to people. I try to avoid contact when I can." Naruto said sounding sad at the mention of the incident but Ino grew more curious, she wanted to ask, but she knew better than to push someone on such an issue.

"I'm sorry, are you sure you're ok?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, you should go to bed I'll wake you when you've to guard." She left and Naruto was alone to think over his thoughts, he stayed there and he eventually woke Ino to watch before making it to the tent and falling asleep.

(Next day)

The next day Naruto and the others made it back to Konoha by midday, the journey went the same as the day before and everyone enjoyed playing games with Kokatsu. Ino was thinking about Naruto's condition, she hadn't told anyone about it and didn't know if anyone other than his sisters knew. Maybe his illusive kaa-chan, she couldn't just be a figment of his imagination, could she? No, there must be a real person, Hokage-sama would not allow someone so crazy to be a ninja without getting help, would she? The rookie nine were all trying to figure out the puzzle that was Naruto Uzumaki, each had their own reason for it though, Sauske for example was just trying to find out how he got so strong, whilst Shikamaru just felt the need to figure it out. The rest had varying reasons for finding out more about him.

Naruto was aware that they would likely be looking for information about him, he knew that there was very little that they could find though. No one would be able to say anything about the kyuubi due the thirds law and so anything they could see would have no reason. He was sure they would figure it out eventually, he just hoped it wouldn't be anytime soon. When they entered the village, he asked Kokatsu to hide in his jacket, she complied and stayed there until he arrived at his apartment, he decided to learn sage mode as soon as he could.

He knew that the others had already began but were having trouble with it so far, he wouldn't be left behind. Now that he had the fox contract he assumed it would be slightly easier as apparently, he would be more attuned to the fox clan's variation of sage mode. It would be the same with the others, for example Roshi would be more inclined to ape sage mode, no one knew if they would be able to access another sage mode as very few people ever mastered a single sage mode. Tsunade said that they would have two weeks leave and the sensei's agreed to give them this time to train by themselves, Naruto knew this was the perfect time to begin his sage training.

He knew he would never be able to master it in such a short time but it would give him a good start, the others who got their contracts which by now was all of them as Roshi just so happened to pass Kumo on his way home and Utakata came near Taki as he went to Kiri to negotiate with the Mizukage his reinstatement. They would all have time to themselves as Garra was normally left alone by the majority of his village, even though he was trying to change, Yugito and B lived far away from the villagers, Yagura was the Mizukage and no one would question her, Roshi and Utakata were away from their villages normally and Fu lived in a tree with no one looking after her.

Naruto on the other hand lived pretty close to others and, though no one would go near his apartment, he would be noticed too easily and the training grounds were normally either in use or people would show up at some point. He entered his apartment and activated all of his security measures, privacy seals and everything else he could to make sure that no one could enter his apartment. He asked Kokatsu to de-summon and then reverse summon him to the clan's home. She did so and he appeared in the middle of the cave he recognised as Shinrin's home, he looked around and found the large fox sitting there staring at him.

 **"Welcome, Naruto. I trust my daughter hasn't been too much of a handful?"** She asked.

"No, it's been fun. I think she enjoyed herself and I know I did too." Naruto replied causing the older fox to smile slightly.

 **"Good, I take it you are here to begin your sage training."**

"Yes, is that ok?"

 **"Of course, I will be the one teaching you, I am probably the best fox in the clan at fox sage mode."**

"Really?"

 **"Of course, do you want proof?"**

"No, it's not that, it's just most clans have an elder or someone and they are usually the best."

 **"Well, we do have a few elders but that doesn't mean they are good at sage mode."**

"Oh, ok. So how do we start."

 **"Well, I'll take you to our clan's spot to learn sage mode, but first, let me change into something more… comfortable."** With that the enormous fox began to shrink, once she reached about Naruto's height she went onto her hind legs and her fur started to disappear, soon her back straightened and her snout shrank back, her ear her front paws turned into hands and her hind paws turned into feet. Where once an enormous fox stood there was now a young woman, she looked to be in her late twenties and stood slightly taller than Naruto and had red hair with white tips. Her tails were still there and her ears still vulpine. Her tails then wrapped around her naked body and gave her the illusion of a rather furry looking coat. "What do you think?" She asked Naruto in a voice that sounded kind and motherly. Naruto now was slightly scared. He kept reminding himself that she wouldn't hurt him and his Kaa-chan was doing the same.

 **'Don't worry, she will not hurt you kit.'** Kurama repeated in his head.

"Naruto, are you ok?" asked the now slightly shaking Naruto.

"I'm fine," he replied when he gained his composure.

"Well that is one of the applications of fox sage mode, you will eventually be able to enter a fox mode and then you will learn a kitsune mode like this one. Now first we must go to the shrine. There you will begin your training." They set off to the shrine and soon came to it, it was a small alter in front of a waterfall, there were several statues of various sizes each with an amount of tails that corresponded to their sizes. "Those statues are to honour the foxes who failed to learn sage mode, most either don't try or succeed but any that fail… they are remembered, their names are at the base of their statue." Shinrin said.

"What happens when you fail to learn sage mode?" Naruto asked.

"You're looking at it." She said causing Naruto to look confused, "they are turned to stone." She elaborated. At this Naruto backed away from the statue, "now as a human we don't know if you will turn into a fox or become a human statue but it would be fun to find out." She giggled at his horrified expression. "Relax, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Ok so how do we start?" Naruto asked, he tried not to sound too nervous.

"Well, to start, you first need to learn how to be perfectly still. Not just not moving, completely still. After that I'll show what sage chakra feels like so you know how to gather it."

"Ok, so how do I learn not to move?"

"Well," she then smirked evilly, "do you see those trees over there?" She pointed to some dead trees, they had no branches but were each at least as tall as his Kaa-chan, they all had some very sharp looking points at the top of them. "Now what you do is, grab a piece of bark and then sit on it on the very top of one of the points. There you will have to find balance without moving." Naruto paled. "Well, get to it." She said and he quickly attempted to do so.

(Ten days later)

Naruto had finally managed to find the balance necessary to stay still at the top of the tree, he still had four days to learn some more before he had to return to the village. Right now, he was sitting on top of the tree, Shinrin was doing the same she smiled at his progress so far, very few of the sages had ever managed to get it so quickly. She decided she would try to teach him to absorb nature chakra now, so she told him to go down to the shrine.

"Ok, you're catching on to this pretty quickly so we will move on to the next part of your training, this waterfall is full of nature chakra and it will show you what it feels like. Now put your finger in the water." He did as he was told and was amazed, he could feel nature it was indescribable he was so amazed by the sensation that he didn't notice the world get bigger, he also didn't see the smirk on Shinrin's face.

"This is amazing, wait why are you so big?" Naruto asked and then noticed that his nose looked bigger than usual, it also seemed more vulpine… wait, is that normal. No. So, he did the only thing he could, he panicked and started running around confused. Or tried to anyway, he soon found he couldn't walk anymore and just sort of collapsed on the ground face first. He was suddenly trapped in something large and orange, it was dark and he started panicking until he was lifted out of the dark by Shinrin.

"It's ok it's ok," Shinrin said whilst giggling slightly, he eventually calmed down and stopped struggling, "I'm sorry I just wanted to see your reaction, everyone does the same but it's normally a fox turning into a human." She explained, "you see the transformation only works after you have touched these waters, now what you have to do is the same exercise, but in your new body."

"What, but I've already done it." Naruto said.

"Not as a fox you haven't, it's completely different but it will be easier now that you've done it before, now get to it." she commanded.

"But first, look at your reflection, you've got a new body to admire." She pulled out a small hand mirror and he was amazed at his new look. He now had deep burnt orange fur which went all the way around him but stopped at his neck where it became a bright white his paws were covered with a dark black fur and he had a large bushy tail. The tail itself matched his fur but had a white tip like his fur on his chest. Around his eyes were black rings that went up to the inner part of his ears like his Kaa-chan had, his ears were quite large but didn't flop down over his face like Kokatsu's.

'Err Kaa-chan' He called to his Kaa-chan who was currently asleep in his mind.

 **"What is it kit?"** His not fully awake kaa-chan called from inside his mind.

'Kaa-chan I'm a fox.' He thought.

 **"Well done, now I'll - wait what!"** Kurama, the mightiest bijuu was shocked at the transformation and just stared at him for a while. Suddenly his Kaa-chan did the strangest thing Naruto had ever seen, Kurama pounced on him in his mind and used her tails to wrap up his tiny form and then brought him up to eye level before snuggling into him and screaming **"Kawai!"** Immediately this was denied and Naruto was brought out of the embrace, **"Now you really are my kit."** Kurama said after recovering from the cuteness which caused Naruto to smile happily. **"Just wait until Fu sees you, I don't think you'll ever escape from her grip. Hell, Yugito and her might fight over you."** At this Naruto paled as much as he could in his fur.

"I have to learn how to get back to normal, and soon. I'll never escape if either of them get their hands on me." Naruto said.

 **"Ok, I'll see you son, kit. Don't think you're going to escape their wrath forever, either you tell them or I do and I won't be subtle."** And Naruto left the mindscape to see his new sensei was still laughing at how cute he looked.

"Oh, you are just so adorable; I can't wait 'till katsu-chan sees you. You're going to have a lot of fun when she sees her new playmate." Said the now much sinister looking kitsune in front of him, "in fact I think I'll call her to show her new teddy bear- I mean playmate. Katsu-chan!" She yelled and suddenly there was a blur of fur and Naruto was on his back with a very hyper Kokatsu looking down on him speaking too fast for him to understand. "Katsu-chan Naruto her is now in his fox mode for a while so I think it would be best if someone would teach him how to move like a fox, but since I'm so busy…" Shinrin trailed off, causing Naruto to look horrified and Kokatsu to look confused. "I was wondering if maybe you could teach him." She finished innocently and Kokatsu was now much happier and began jumping about.

"I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it..." She was yelling and then she grabbed a rather helpless Naruto by the tail and dragged him off.

"Kokatsu-chan please let go!" Naruto yelled finding the fox come easier for him to speak than whilst he was a human.

"Ok, but you're so cute, I wonder where I put all my ribbons." She said and gained a thoughtful look, Naruto paled at the mention of ribbons.

"Kokatsu-chan, I need to learn how to move about. I'm not used to being a fox, could you help?" Naruto asked trying to get her mind off how she could make him prettier.

"Sure, well try to move and we'll see where to go from how well you do." Naruto got up and tried to stand on his four paws but found that it was harder to do and fell onto his face, his muscles and bones were turning the wrong way. It felt weird. He kept trying to stand and after five minutes he managed to do so. "Yay, see it's easy! Now try to walk." He moved his front paw and immediately collapsed. "Oh dear, well keep at it, I'll try to find my ribbons and maybe some of my curlers. I wonder what you would look like with curly hair, oh or we could dye it pink!" Naruto now had more than enough motivation to learn to learn to run than was necessary.

(The next day)

After learning to walk Naruto soon learned how to run as Kokatsu did indeed find her ribbons, and pink hair dye and lots of glitter. He managed pretty well for the first time but knew he would need to practice, but he and his sensei both knew he needed to learn to turn back to go home soon. They repeated the balancing exercise from before and he was beginning to get the hang of it a few days and he would be able to go back to normal. It wasn't that he didn't like being a fox far from it, it was amazing and he loved every second of it but he needed to return, his friends were waiting for him there.

Now though it was nearing the end of the day and he was dreading it, that meant that he would have to go to the mindscape and might never escape. He managed to avoid it yesterday as he was to physically exhausted to do anything and his Kaa-chan took pity on him. "Kaa-chan, you know I'm starting to feel pretty tired you know so I might just-" he was cut off when he was grabbed by the tail and brought to the circle, they soon made it and Naruto was dumped in the middle of the circle.

There was silence for a second and then there was a shared cry of "KAWAIIIII" and Naruto was suddenly glomped by several blurs and he suddenly couldn't move. He felt several hands petting him and what felt like a few giant paws as well. He couldn't see who it was but he could guess that at least two of those belonged to Yugito and another two belonged to Fu. Suddenly one of the hands found a really comfortable spot on his back and he felt absolutely perfectly content being there, he felt a soft tickle in his throat and suddenly felt a natural response to the comfort.

He let go of the sensation in his throat and everything stopped and he quickly realised what he did, he purred. "Did he just…" whispered a voice he recognised as Yugito.

"Yeah, I think he did." Came the voice of, Yagura?

"The Fluffy-chan is mine!" Screamed Fu as she then grabbed Naruto and brought him to her chest and squeezed him tightly which provoked a reaction from the others as they tried to fight for him. The laughter of his Kaa-chan and the sniggers of his brothers could be heard even under the layer of women and bijuu who were currently lying on top of him.

 **"Ok stop!"** Came the voice of Gyuuki as he tried to calm down the women, he grabbed Matatabi and Kukuo and held them with his tentacles but was visibly struggling the other bijuu were trying to stop their siblings and Jinchuuriki but were struggling as they were trying to hold back the female Jinchuuriki. In the end Naruto found himself comfortably in the arms of Fu who was avoiding the dirty looks of the losers, Naruto was being pet by her and was content to stay Fu found the perfect way to stroke his fur and he was purring again which caused all of the other females to look jealous.

 **"Ok Kurama, so why did you bring a kit here and where is Naruto?"** Isobu said.

 **"That is Naruto, he's learning fox sage mode and is stuck in that form until he can go back to normal."** Kurama said causing all of them to look shocked before there was a lot of laughing and Fu stopped petting Naruto much to his disappointment, then he realised the situation and blushed a lot. Fu then brought Naruto up to her face and looked him in the eye.

"Nope, Naruto's gone, there is now only Fluffy-chan." Fu said which got a lot more laughing. She then went back to petting him and he forgot everything and went back to purring, while this happened the others were talking amongst each other but Naruto cared very little as he was too engrossed in his petting. He didn't know when it happened or how it happened but he found himself being thrown into the air, and Fu looked shocked and was blushing very red. He then found himself in the arms of Yugito who brought him to her chest and began petting him.

"What's going on-" Naruto began but then Yugito started to pet him in a way much better than Fu's method somehow and he stretched into it before collapsing and purring happily. After a while Yugito stopped petting him and he was brought back to reality, this time he was still in the lap of Yugito and everyone was staring at him. "What happened?" Naruto asked drowsily.

"Naruto-kun," Yugito said, "who was better me or Fu?"

"You were, Yugito-neechan." He said as he started to wake up a bit more, he then found himself being passed from Yugito to Yagura who then began petting him, this continued for a while and just as Naruto was about to doze off again she stopped and he woke up again. "What are you doing?" He was now very confused.

"Naruto-kun," Yagura said, "now who do you think is the best?" she asked innocently and in his sleep addled state he replied.

"Nee-chan is the best." Which caused Yagura to smirk unknown to Naruto.

"But which of us do you prefer?" She asked and then found the perfect spot on his spine to pet and petted him once which caused him to purr in pure bliss.

"Yagura-neechan is the best." He mumbled quietly. He was then awoken by slightly less gentle hands and was forced out of his sister's hands and was dropped in the middle of the circle, he awoke with a start. "What happened?" He asked as he tried to get his bearings, he suddenly found himself surrounded by three very annoyed looking sisters and one triumphant looking one.

"What do you mean Yagura's the best?!" Yelled Hana, Yugito and Fu as one.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"You said I was the best." Yagura said in a singsong voice.

"What? When? All I remember is feeling really happy." Naruto said and unknowingly crushed his sisters heart.

You see the four girls each claimed that Naruto liked them the most while Naruto wasn't there as he was the youngest and always managed to make them feel happy. They all therefore wanted to be Naruto's favourite, Naruto knew none of this though, his brothers didn't care as much who the favourite was as they knew he loved them anyway and were fine with that. "So, Naruto-kun doesn't like me." Yagura said and a depression bubble appeared above her.

"What? No! I love you Nee-chan." Naruto said.

"So, I'm your favourite." She said happily.

"No, I don't have a favourite you're all the best." Naruto said trying to placate the women.

"Naruto-kun, I never got the chance to pet you." Hana said nervously, "could I, please?"

"Sure, just please be gentle." Naruto said and suddenly he was brought gently up to her and was brought back to the bliss of being petted, out of the four of them it was probably Hana who petted him the best. Yugito came a close second but Hana just had her beat in the end. He soon fell asleep and left the mindscape into a deep sleep.

 **"So, you all have a contract now?"** Kurama said and received a positive reply, Utakata and Roshi had acted like messengers and now they all had the contracts that Naruto had.

 **"Good, have you started the sage training yet?"** Gyuuki asked.

"Yeah but it's been hard." Fu said.

 **"That's because you don't have the right contract yet, once you get it you'll learn much quicker. You might be able to learn the other sage arts once you access sage mode."** Chomei said.

 **"Unfortunately, the sage chakra has sped up the process, he'll know as soon as he turns back to human. The unstable makeup of his transformation has sped up the effects."** Kurama said sadly, **"he also will have to return soon so he can't stay like that indefinitely."**

"It was going to happen soon," Yagura said regretfully, "we have been lucky he didn't notice sooner."

"I still feel like he should get some say in this." B said seriously, "this isn't a bloodline you're giving him. You're actually taking something away from him, something that he values more than any of the rest of us." His lack of rap showed the seriousness of the situation.

"It has to be done, no matter what." Hana said bitterly.

 **"Enough, is it just him who's reaction has sped up?"** Isobu asked.

 **"No, it's just him."** Son Goku said.

 **"So, it isn't even going to help with our deadline."** Gyuuki grumbled.

 **"Which is why all of you must be careful, Garra you will be first so try to find some way to stay in the village for as long as possible."** Shukaku said.

(Apollo's palace)

Apollo was sleeping contentedly dreaming of the day when he and his little daughter could be reunited. Suddenly he felt something strange coming from the Oracle at the camp, it felt like when she gave a prophecy of great importance. It also felt like when she gave out that prophecy. He quickly went to the big house himself to see this prophecy.

There was no one there, so who asked the prophecy? It did not matter as now there was green smoke coming from the mummified remains of his last oracle. After the prophecy was spoken Apollo was left pale, he knew he had to tell the council but first he had to tell his sister. He made his way to her camp and quickly went to her tent avoiding the annoyed hunters of his sister, this was too important for him to be flirting. That was something he never thought he would ever think.

"Sis, we need to talk!" He shouted as he reached her tent and walked in, he found his sister as an older version of her usual form, she quickly changed back.

"What are you doing here?!" She asked annoyed.

"Sis, it's important. There was a prophecy, it has to do with them." He said urgently and all anger left her face to be replaced by fear and worry.

"What is it?" She asked.

He told her the prophecy and she turned pale white.

"Sis, we have to call the council, they need to know about this. We need to decide if we should bring them he-" He was cut of he his sister having a knife held to his throat and a dangerous look in her eye.

"They will come here, I will bring them here. I will bring them home." She said.

"But sis-" He was cut off again.

"No but's I will bring them here no matter what."

"Fine, but we still need to tell the council. It's their children too, how would you feel if something like this came up about him?"

"I understand, but them coming here is not up for discussion, they have suffered enough, I won't let them suffer any more." Apollo then left and Artemis was left to herself, she thought over what the words meant and nearly broke down at what may be happening on the other world. She would find her son no matter what, he was her only child, here was his home.

She would bring him here no matter what, he was her son.


	15. Chapter 15

(Three days later)

Naruto was now getting quite worried; he had nearly managed to completely stay still but his tail kept involuntarily twitching every time he was nearly there. Now he only had until tomorrow to learn sage mode and he needed to hurry up. He was on top of the tree on his piece of bark and was sitting to attention like he was told would be easiest, suddenly he realised he had been sitting there for a while and he hadn't fallen. He looked at the sun and saw that he had been there quite a while, he looked and saw Shinrin smirking at him and he realised he completed it, he would be human again.

"Ok, now what?" He asked and his sensei smirked.

"Now we go down to the waterfall again and I pour some of the water down you and you turn back." She replied.

"That sounds easy." Naruto said and she looked at him grimly.

"No, it's not, you must sit still and then control the nature chakra that enters your system. If you do it wrong, then you will be turned to stone. Try not to control the nature chakra, just sort of guide it through your body, after your done with it expel it." She said.

He sat down near the waterfall and closed his eyes, he sat perfectly still and then he felt the water hit him on the face, he felt the chakra enter him and he immediately tried to move it through his system. It stuck and he realised that he too was becoming frozen, he began to panic but he thought back on the advice and instead of forcing it tried to guide it. That didn't seem to work quite so well either, he was getting very scared at this point, he then tried to use his regular chakra flow to move it. It was working. He managed to use his chakra to pass it through his system, he opened his eyes and found that he was back to his normal human self.

He cheered happily then realised something, he was naked. He immediately panicked and went to cover up, he used his tail to cover himself then sighed. Then he thought over that previous action and concluded. He came up with two thoughts, one, that tails are awesome and more people should have them; and two, that he still had a tail. Following the obvious conclusion that these thoughts brought, his brain tried to tell him to do two separate things, one yell out 'go tails!', and two, scream 'I have a tail!' as confusedly as possible. When he tried to do those two things at the same time he just, sort of jumped slightly and started speaking random gibberish.

He then heard giggling coming from his sensei and looked up to see her smiling at him. "Well you didn't think you'd master sage mode in just two weeks, did you?" She asked whilst giggling.

"Well then we need to hurry up and get training so I can go back to being a human again quickly, it's almost time for me to go." He said.

"Well, that's where you're wrong, it's not nearly time for you to go, it is time for you to go. The transformation took all night, it's currently about nine in the morning. You should be going. Here's some clothes, they're just yours but I took the liberty of removing a part of it to help with your new furry appendage." She said.

"But I can't go home like this!" He shouted.

"Oh, calm down, just wrap it around your waist and pretend it's a belt. Here's the rest of your stuff, now I'm sending you to your apartment."

"Wait n-" he then turned into a puff of smoke and was currently headed towards his home. "-o I have to get changed!" He finished as he appeared in a puff of smoke in his apartment, much to the shock of the five current inhabitants.

(With Anko, Kurenai and Yugao about three minutes earlier)

The three self-proclaimed sisters of Naruto were terrified; their brother had been missing for two weeks, no one had seen him since he came back from the mission. The three of them and his team were terrified especially when they had only recently heard of the threat of Akatsuki, Tsunade had teams looking for him but the three of them had heard nothing. They feared for the worst.

"Come on, you need to find something please." Kurenai asked Hana Inuzuka, a friend of the three of them who they had become close with a few years ago.

"I'm sorry but he's just vanished, the scent just leads here and then disappears." She said which scared Tsunade who was also here to see if there were any new leads.

"Are you sure," Tsunade asked, "there has to be something, the only other way would be some sort of space-time ninjutsu and there only a few ninjas who…" She trailed off and thought back to what Naruto and Kurama had told her of the kyuubi attack, the instigator who was part of the Akatsuki used such a ninjutsu, what if he was here?

"Are there any other scents?" She asked.

"No, wait yes, but they weren't here for more than a minute, it's hard to tell from the smell already here." Tsunade was now even more terrified, "it smells almost-" Hana was cut off by a puff of smoke in the middle of the room and a loud voice yelling.

All five women were now on guard. "-o I have to get changed!" then the smoke dissipated and revealed… Naruto. He stood there for a second, he looked at the three of them, blinked and then yelled (screamed) a manly (girly) yelp (squeal). "What are you doing here, I'm getting changed!" He yelled and wrapped something furry around his waist covering himself from the women. "Perverts!"

The three women stood there for a second before Anko's brain rebooted and she did the Anko-iest thing she could, she pounced on him with tears in her eyes and yelled "Naruto!" then hugged him as tightly as she could as he fell to the ground with her on top of him. Suddenly Kurenai and Yugao's minds rebooted and they decided to join Anko on top of their brother and hugging him.

"Nee-chan what are you, get off." Naruto yelled as he was smothered by the three of him. Tsunade and Hana just watched, Hana in confusion, humour and slight arousal. It wasn't every day you see a random naked man appear out of nowhere, especially one so- bad Hana, she was rightly confused. Tsunade however just felt relief course through her system as she saw Naruto again, she was scared he had been taken. Eventually the three girls realised Naruto's compromising position so Yugao and Kurenai got up with slight blushes on their cheeks, Anko however didn't care and kept hugging her little brother refusing to let go no matter what he said.

"Please Nee-chan I need to get up, I need to get changed." Naruto pleaded.

"No," Anko replied, "you left me all alone with no warning whatsoever, now you are never getting away, I'm going to hold onto you for ever. There's nothing you can do about it."

Then she held onto him tighter. "What are you talking about? I told both you and Baa-chan before I left remember?" Naruto said.

(Flashback)

"Nee-chan?" Naruto said as they neared the gates of Konoha.

"Yes Otouto." Anko said whilst thinking in her head, 'Dango, dango, oh how I've missed you, I can't believe we ran out so quickly, the last time I had you was in Suna and that was days ago, I can't wait.'

"…So, tell, Yugao-neechan and Kurenai-neechan, ok?" Naruto finished after explaining exactly what would happen in great detail.

"Hmm, oh, yeah I'll tell them." Anko said.

(End flashback)

"Oh." Anko said and then rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.

"You, were thinking about dango so much that you didn't listen to me?" Naruto said incredulously.

"Anko, that is the most irresponsible thing I've ever heard, we were worried when you should have known all along!" Tsunade said in anger.

"Baa-chan I told you too." Naruto said.

"Oh, well…" Tsunade began.

(Flashback)

'Sake, sake, oh how I've missed you, I haven't had a drink since Suna.' Tsunade thought wistfully.

"Ok Baa-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm, oh sure." Tsunade said.

(End Flashback)

"Oh." Both Tsunade and Anko both rubbed the back of their heads sheepishly and Naruto face palmed. Yugao and Kurenai looked murderous whilst Hana was on the floor laughing.

"Well, now that that's sorted, I'm going to get changed." Then the girls all realised that he was naked and blushed.

"Stay if you want, I know you probably won't leave no matter what I say." Naruto went into his tiny bedroom and started to put his clothes on, it was a little uncomfortable with the tail but he managed to get it through the hole and then wrapped it around his waist. He then put his jacket so that it would cover it and finally put on his forehead protector, he then set out of the room and went back into his main room to talk with his sisters.

Hana had left and the four others were standing around his small apartment waiting for him, once he went into the room his chest hurt. He grabbed it quickly and the four women looked up at him, but he waved them off, it must have been his body trying to get back to normal. He sat on his sofa and started to tell the four of them where he had been and that he had started his training in nature chakra.

"So, now I have this tail." He said and unwrapped it from his waist and removing his jacket to show them, Anko immediately pounced on it and hugged it tightly causing Naruto to yelp out, she then started to stroke it and he giggled slightly. "Nee-chan, please stop that."

Naruto said through his giggles, but she continued and began to laugh along with him. "Oh, so someone is ticklish." Anko said with a sly grin and then started to tickle him, suddenly Kurenai decided to join in and pounced on his tail.

"Not you too Nee-chan. You're the mature one." Naruto said between giggles.

"Sorry Naruto-kun but your tail is too fluffy looking." She said with a smirk.

"Hey, what do you mean she's the mature one!?" Anko and Yugao said in unison, Naruto gulped and the two of them gained evil grins before Anko started tickling him with more vigour and Yugao joined in. Soon Naruto gave up.

"Please stop," he said, "Nee-chan! Baa-chan help me!" He yelled between tickles. Tsunade just smirked at him and then laughed, she then pulled out a bottle of sake from god knows where and a saucer and sat there sipping it.

"You deserve that for calling me Baa-chan." She said with a smirk, she drank the sake until they were finished and Naruto sat on the floor gasping for breath while his sisters stood up smirking. Tsunade thought this couldn't get any better continued to drink her sake. She just poured a refill when the saucer cracked slightly and she frowned, that was never a good sign. She knew that was normally a sign that something bad was about to happen, the only worse warning was when she suddenly started winning.

"Anko," she said, "do you know what the numbers were for the lottery?" She then removed her ticket from her pocket and looked at the numbers.

"Yeah, 4, 5, 2, 7 I think, why did you win?" Anko said sarcastically, everyone knew of Tsunade's bad luck.

"Yeah." Tsunade said, the others looked surprised.

"Wow, Baa-chan, your lucks turning around!" Naruto said happily, "why don't we go out and celebrate, I haven't been to Ichiraku's in… a… while." He then started to cough causing the others to look concerned, Tsunade in particular knew that her luck being good only happened when something bad happened.

"I'm fine, don't worry." Naruto said, then the pain from his chest came back full force and he clutched as he continued to cough, now he was in pain. "What's happening." He muttered before falling to one knee and coughing even more violently and now he was coughing up blood.

"Naruto!" Tsunade and the others yelled out as they went to check him, Tsunade began to scan for what was wrong.

"What, is this," Tsunade muttered.

"What's wrong with him?" Anko asked worriedly as he coughed another mouthful of blood.

"I don't know?" Tsunade said.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Kurenai asked incredulously.

"I mean I don't know, it's like everything that could happen badly is, internal bleeding his bones are breaking themselves, he's… I don't know, we need to get him to the hospital!" She shouted. Suddenly the coughing got worse and he started throwing up buckets of blood onto the floor, they tried to get close to him but he was writhing in pain, he then started screaming and he opened his eyes to show they were bloodshot, they then changed to the red eyes of kyuubi and he was writhing even more.

Then the kyuubi's chakra cloak sprung up around him and they couldn't get any closer, Anko kept trying to get passed it but it burned, she kept trying and managed to hold his shoulders. Suddenly his shirt and jacket were disintegrated and Anko was flung back into the wall, he began to squirm even more but he stopped coughing up blood. Then to the horror of those present scars started to appear all over his body, his sisters remembered the night he took the scroll and remembered seeing all of his scars.

Now that he wasn't attacking them the could see them clearer, burns cuts and even a few brands saying 'demon' and 'monster' along his chest and back. The worst was an enormous wound that went across his back from shoulder to shoulder the word 'KYUUBI' was scrawled across him. Tsunade gasped, she hadn't read any of his medical reports before she knew none of what had happened to him but this went above abuse. There were only a few patches of skin free from the scars and they were small, how did he survive all of that.

He then started to scream in agony and more and more scars appeared, all of them crossing across his skin, he was screaming even more and he curled into a ball and a tail grew from the cloak, then another and another. Suddenly there were nine tails and he was somehow still in his initial bijuu mode showing that now there was not a single inch of skin not scarred in some way. Then he collapsed lifelessly to the ground, like a puppet cut from its strings, the cloak remained but the tails left him.

His body then began floating in the air and he was now about a meter in the air just floating horizontally, the women just stared horrified. Then suddenly an enormous scar going from his left-hand shoulder to his right hip opened up and blood spewed out, his audience gasped in horror and rushed to help him. They were stopped by the cloak which had spread out about a meter in a demonic sphere, they couldn't get passed, it was like a solid wall. It blocked them and they were pushed back when they tried to get closer to him, tears streamed down there faces as they tried to pass the barrier. Another of his scars, on his chest tore open and blood poured out filling the barrier, at the bottom of the barrier blood started to pool.

Suddenly a head formed just above Naruto's stomach, the head of the kyuubi. It was made entirely of the red chakra but you could make out the shape of the fox. It looked down on Naruto's form and just stared.

"Yugao," Tsunade said, "go find Hiashi Hyuuga. Kurenai, find Kakashi, bring them here. Anko, find Jiraiya, he should be in the hot springs." She ordered.

"But-" Anko was stopped by Tsunade.

"They may be able to give some insight on the situation." She said and the three women left. "Naruto, what's happening?" She then whispered to herself.

Then throughout the entire hidden leaf village a voice could be heard by everyone, one that sent shivers down the spines of those from the kyuubi attack and made everyone else look confused and terrified. The voice was barely a whisper but it seemed to come from everywhere at all times, the voice was deep and menacing, it spoke four words.

 **"** **So, it has begun."**

(On Olympus)

The council was currently in session on Olympus, Apollo had yet to tell the others of the prophecy but he knew he would have to say it. Artemis was sending him looks, she knew that he would say it but wanted him to get it over with. He sighed and looked at the others, they didn't particularly want to be there but it was the solstice so they had to attend.

"Father, a prophecy has been foretold, one as big as that one." Apollo stated. This got everyone's attention, they knew exactly which prophecy he was referring to.

"Well, speak up, say the prophecy." Zeus said.

"Father, it has to do with... them." Apollo said, again they all knew who he was referring to.

"Well, what is it, I take it is bad if you are so worried." Zeus said.

"Yes, but no matter what I say I say we still bring them here." Apollo said confidently. "Fine…"

(After the Council Artemis' Camp)

Artemis returned to her camp looking annoyed but still happy, they had allowed her to continue to bring her son home. In the end, they decided it was for the best to bring them here, in a majority vote with only Dionysus disagreeing as the rest wanted to see their children or agreed. Ares had worried her, when he heard mention of the children he gained a dangerous gleam in his eye. She sighed, she went back to thinking of her son, she missed him so much. Even though she hadn't seen him since he was a baby she wanted to hold him again, to simply see him again, anything.

She focused on Minato, she decided that she hated him now, she despised him, he hurt their… no her son. He did not deserve the title of father; he was like the rest of them. Naruto would be different though he was hers, nothing could change that. He would be the strongest, he would be perfect and he would join her hunt. Nothing would stop her; the rules were shaky but as long as he was capable of staying away from girls… in a camp of nothing but girls… That could cause a problem. Or not, the oath only said to not to be in the company of the opposite sex in a sexual way.

So long as he was pure then she could convince him to join, then he would stay with her forever, nothing would be able to separate them.

"What if he doesn't accept?" Kushina asked, "as much as I hate to admit it he may be overwhelmed by all of this, he may take some time."

"He will join, why wouldn't he?" Artemis asked, Kushina had become a bigger part of her mind over time.

"Maybe he has a… female companion." Kushina suggested.

"Then she may join." Artemis said.

"You know we won't be able to do that, and that isn't what I meant, what if he has been… err… seduced?" Kushina asked.

"He won't have been, he will be sixteen anyway, it's not like he will do anything with anyone by then. He will still be a child."

"That's not the point, what if he… has interest in a certain girl?"

"He won't."

"I guess I won't get anywhere with you like this. What if he seduces a huntress?"

"He won't, he wouldn't, he couldn't."

"You won't have seen him-"

"Enough! I don't care of your input, he will join."

"Milady?" A voice from outside her tent she recognised as Zoe called to her.

"What?" Artemis replied.

Zoe entered the tent and bowed to Artemis. "Milady, what has thou so angry, did the meeting go poorly?"

"No, it went fine, in a few years I… have a task to accomplish, it is important, to me especially." Artemis said and Zoe looked confused.

"What is thy task?"

"It is… of great importance that the nature is not revealed to anyone, I'm sorry."

"Do not worry Milady, thou shalt accomplish thy task." Zoe said.

"Thank you, though it is not the task that will be particularly difficult, it is the fallout."

"Well, then Milady, what shalt happen, once thy task is complete?"

"Big changes Zoe, changes that could have big repercussions."

"Thou art my lady, thou shalt accomplish thy task and any problems from it shalt be dealt with by thy hunters. We stand at thine command."

"Thank you, Zoe, you may leave." Artemis was smiling slightly, she would recover her son and bring him back to his home, with her.


	16. Chapter 16

(In Naruto's apartment)

Naruto was currently in his bubble of kyuubi's chakra, he had stopped moving a while ago and he looked deathly pale, the scars continued to open and spill blood to the bottom of the bubble. By now it had filled up about a foot in height, it couldn't get out of the bubble and Tsunade was worried, that was more than ten litres. No-one could survive losing that much blood and from the looks of it Naruto wouldn't either, she had been trying to break through but the kyuubi's chakra had stopped her. Naruto had stopped making any noise too, the kyuubi had also vanished into the seal as well, Tsunade didn't know what was happening but knew that kyuubi must have been the root of the problem. Then Anko, Jiraiya, Yugao, Kurenai, Kakashi and Hiashi came into the room urgently. The two women paled and had tears streaming down their faces at the sight of their brother.

"What is this?" Hiashi asked in disgust, "what is a happening to that corpse?"

"It's not a corpse, yet," Tsunade muttered darkly, Anko and Yugao calmed down at the first part but heard the yet and paled, "the kyuubi has done something to him, we don't know what but, this is how he turned out. It looks like some sort of ritual; I have called you here to see if there was anything your doujutsu could see."

"Of course," the Hyuuga then activated his byakugan and stiffened, "T-tsunade-sama. This is impossible!" Hiashi said, breaking his usually stoic demeanour causing the other occupants to stiffen at the urgency.

"What is it?" Tsunade asked impatiently.

"He… He's still conscious." The Hyuuga said horrifying the others, they all assumed that the shock and pain would bring him to unconsciousness, "He's somehow still alive, but. He won't be able to survive much more of this, how he survived so far is probably due to the kyuubi's interference, his body is being flooded by its chakra. The amount, it's too much even for a Jinchuuriki. He will die if we don't do something."

"Then do something!" Anko screamed, she had tears coming down her face at this point, "we have to get him out of here! We have to help him! We have-" She was interrupted by a voice from the doorway.

"-to remove it from the village." Danzo walked into the room.

"What the hell are you talking about?! And why the hell are you here?!" Anko screamed at the elder.

"We need to get that out of the village, as for why I'm here, I sensed the kyuubi's chakra and assumed the worst. This is likely the kyuubi attempting to escape, at this point that is just a bomb waiting to go off. It must be removed for the safety of the village." Danzo said causing many of the occupants of the room to glare angrily at him. "This is probably because the child removed the seal, the kyuubi was probably bidding its time and waiting until the boy had his guard down."

"How do you know that?!" Jiraiya asked angrily.

"I have my ways, that is not important though is it. We must remove the boy from the village." The elder said causing Anko to growl lightly at him.

"That won't happen, he needs to be helped." Anko said.

"There is no more 'him' anymore, that is just the bijuu. I think that if we hurry we could extract-" Danzo was cut off by Tsunade.

"We will do no such thing; we have no Uzumaki to make a Jinchuuriki. No one else could survive. Besides we would never be able to safely remove it."

"Then we kill what's left of the host and hope the monster goes, down with the ship so to say." Danzo said with a smirk.

"That won't happen!" Anko yelled.

"He is our brother!" Yugao yelled.

"He is still alive!" Kurenai screamed.

"His life signs are going down too fast," Hiashi interrupted causing the others to look back to the orb and pale in fear. Naruto was now white as a sheet; the blood had now reached waist level. The others gasped and his sisters cried out in fear.

"The beast clearly wants the body, if we destroy it then we can ruin it's plans." Danzo said.

"You don't know that!" Anko screamed.

"But he will die. You cannot help him." Danzo said and Anko broke down on the floor.

"He'll be fine." Anko muttered to herself as she sobbed on the floor.

"We can't just give up on him." Yugao said, "you could be wrong."

"And if I'm right, which looks likely, then the village will be destroyed." Danzo said.

"Enough." Tsunade commanded and silenced everyone, "Danzo's right." She said dejectedly. Kurenai gasped and fresh tears crawled down her face, Yugao looked afraid and Anko looked back up in outrage.

"Tsunade-sama, you can't! Naruto will be-" Anko started.

"Naruto's dying, he's suffering and we don't know how long he will last." Tsunade said as she turned to them with tears in her eyes, "like it or not. We cannot risk more lives; we have to remove him from here." She finished.

"I see you agree with me Tsunade-sama, I suggest we find a way to contain the beast so that we may use it as-" Danzo began.

"No." Tsunade cut him off, "as you said, it's too dangerous, now we must move it to somewhere he will cause the least amount of damage." Danzo seethed slightly but conceded.

"So," Kakashi said, speaking for the first time, "how do you move a ball of bijuu's chakra half filled with blood and a body?" It was true the ball was now half full and was beginning to cover Naruto's form, his sisters all looked at him sadly before turning away and crying. His body was then covered in the blood and his eyes closed, a tear dripping from them before he was submerged in the blood.

(In Suna before it began)

Garra was meditating in the dessert, he usually did this for a few hours, his sand acted as an umbrella to shield him from getting sunburn. Suddenly Shukaku called from his mind and brought him into the mindscape, he and Shukaku were the only ones there, none of the other bijuu were there as normally one or all of them would be present but it was only the two of them.

 **"I hope you will be able to live with yourself once Naruto finds out what you've done."** Shukaku said mournfully, **"correction, what we've done. He will hate us."**

"So, it has started." Garra said, Shukaku nodded, "why am I here then?"

 **"It is our punishment, we must view him. We must all watch his suffering and hope he will live."**

"What do you mean if he will live?" Garra asked incredulously.

 **"We warned you that there is a high chance that this will fail. The whole process depends on him, on his will to live."**

"So, he will live."

 **"Not necessarily,"** came the voice of Matatabi who entered along with Yugito.

"What do you mean not necessarily?" Yugito asked slightly afraid.

 **"He may not want to live by the end of it."** Matatabi said sadly.

"No! We are doing this so he will live! He has to live!" Yugito shouted indignantly.

 **"And in the end, it will be his choice."** Came Isobu who carried Yagura before setting her in the circle.

"Why would he choose to die; he has us?" Yagura asked.

 **"He will relive all of his memories, all the pain in such a short amount of time. Especially since he is conscious of the outside world. If they done as predicted. They will plan on removing him from the village out of fear."** Isobu said.

"So, he will hate them?" Yagura asked.

 **"He might,"** Son Goku and Roshi came in, **"but this will decrease his chances of survival, we hoped he wouldn't hear what was said but he heard some of it and saw them leave. We don't know how much he saw though."**

"Will he die?" Roshi asked quietly.

 **"Possibly,"** Kukuo and Hana, **"but Kurama will tell him what we need him to hear. He will only know that he was abandoned."**

"Then we will help him." Hana assured them.

 **"They were a big part of his life, possibly as big as we are. They took care of him and Tsunade is his family in some way anyway."** Saiken said and set Utakata on the ground.

"Then we will help him forget." Yagura said.

"He will not forget people who played such a big impact in his life." Yugito said sadly.

 **"That is why it is important to try to keep him stable. He could go mad, if he survives."** Chomei said and entered the room, Fu in tow.

"He will live!" Fu said, "he has to, now he will not stay with the humans anymore so he will be happy."

 **"Not all humans are bad Fu."** Gyuuki and B came in.

"Well there are more bad than good." Fu replied.

 **"Be quiet child, it is beginning."** Kurama then entered the room and the all became quiet. Kurama then opened the connection to see through Naruto's eyes, the girls became enraged when they saw their brother being tickled by three other women.

"Naruto is ours!" Fu yelled out and the others agreed. Garra was wondering if that was what it would be like to have his brother and sister treat him normally. Could they have fun.

B then spoke up, "let him have this, he probably will never see them like this. Naruto is a person also so don't claim him like a toy Fu." This was strange for B to sound so mature.

"I'm not, I just want him to be ok, this way he will be." Fu said, sadly.

The scene continued and it eventually stopped, everyone watched as Tsunade looked at her cracked sake saucer. Naruto, they could tell, was confused and when she asked about the lottery they felt it coming. It wasn't exactly felt, more like they just knew, like a sixth sense. Naruto's eyes then fell to the floor and he coughed up blood, they watched as he writhed in agony with tears falling down their faces. When his scars appeared they nearly threw up at the sight and they all sobbed even more, when his wounds opened they felt guilt at all the pain he was going through. When Kurama's face appeared through the cloak they all saw through the eyes of the chakra construct, they saw the brands the burns and the full extent of his damage. Finally, Fu couldn't take it anymore.

"Make it stop!" She said.

 **"No child, if we stop now he will die. You were all told of what would happen."** Kurama said.

"Please, we need to help him." Fu pleaded.

 **"No. This is the price, for your choices you must watch the suffering you have caused."** Isobu said.

"When will it end?" Yugito asked quietly.

 **"In a few hours, the worst of it will be over. After that he will be forced to heal for several days. If he… when he awakes you must be there to comfort him."** Saiken said.

Suddenly Naruto appeared in the mindscape, his representation was floating in the centre of the circle of bijuu. There was a sphere of bijuu chakra surrounding him blocking their access of him the blood had nearly reached his body and even in the mindscape it could be seen, it then reached his body and he was submerged in it.

 **"She has done as we wanted, she didn't even feel my chakra enter her mind. She will have no memory of meeting us or giving Naruto the contract, I also sent out a strand to remove his 'S-class' mission from the memories of his sisters. It will act as a disease and remove it from the minds of anyone involved, it can be passed by the carrier simply using chakra near the receiver. Since Tsunade always uses chakra in her henge anyone from that mission who talks to her will forget."** Kurama said, it was necessary.

(In the outside world)

Naruto's body was now fully submerged in blood, Tsunade found that the chakra ball actually acted like a sphere, so it could simple be moved by being pushed. Of course, a huge sphere of blood was not something that the civilians should be allowed to see so it would have to be done quickly. Tsunade, being the only one physically capable of carrying it lifted the ball and ordered the ANBU to cordon of a path for her to carry the ball out of the village. Soon they were carrying it through abandoned streets to the village gates, Tsunade then continued to carry the ball of chakra, she decided that the best location would be as far onto the land of fire's border as possible. She then decided to bring only those who knew, minus Danzo, to leave the kyuubi container.

Soon they arrived in the place that was decided that the ball be placed, who knows, if the kyuubi did escape it may destroy Orochimaru before coming for them since they were so close to him. The border between the land of fire and the land of rice. They were going to leave his body here, the valley of the end.

"We're here." Hiashi said with no emotion he then left to give those who knew him privacy, Kakashi followed him.

"I guess this is it then kid," Jiraiya said, talking to the ball of chakra and blood, "I'm… I'm sorry I wasn't there for you." He then turned away from the valley and left, failing to hold in the tears.

"Naruto-kun, I… thank you. I'm sorry it ended like this," Tsunade said as tears fell down her face, she had grown to care for the kid, "I wish we could have got to know each other more. You were a great ninja, and one of the strongest people I've ever met." She then looked at his sisters, "I'll leave you but hurry, we don't know when it will blow." She too then left leaving only his sisters.

"Naruto… Otouto, I… I love you." Yugao said, tears dripping from her face, "you… you did so much for me, I owe you everything. Without you, Hayate would have died, I love you I just… I don't want to leave you. You're my brother and I just want you to know, your mother would have been proud of you. She loved you, I hope you'll be with her soon. I'm sorry we couldn't save you. I love you. I'm going to miss you." She then took off her katana and stared at the blade for a minute, "I wanted to teach you the way of the sword. Now… that I won't get that chance… I will at least give you this." She then placed the blade in its sheath and set it on the ground near him. She then turned and stood to the side of the valley vowing to never lose a loved one again.

Kurenai then looked to him and stared for a minute, "Otouto, you were my favourite person, and probably still will be until the end. I'm going to miss you, nothing can be the same again, no one will ever be able to take your place. I will love you forever and I will miss you. I brought your bow, I feel like it should stay with you, no one else will be able to use it like you will. Your team… Our team… we'll miss you, Hinata will be heartbroken. I… I hope you're happy wherever you are. Goodbye… Otouto." Kurenai then set his bow down beside Yugao's sword, then she turned and looked at Anko sadly, she would be the one most torn up about him. As much as she and Yugao loved him they knew that to Anko he was her world. Their sensei was one of the people to trust Anko fully and in the end, they never got to say goodbye, Anko had seen him as her second coming. She would have gladly died for him but now… now it was too late. Kurenai then went to the side of the valley and hugged Yugao as they both cried over their brother.

Anko just stood there, finally she spoke, "Otouto, I… I don't know what to do. You, you kept me going, you made me feel human. After all the years of the village's hatred, all the anger. I made a mask to hide the pain, I made it so that I could be stronger, I did it for me. I can't go back to all of that. You were the one keeping me going, you are the reason I can sleep at night. Now… now that you're… now that you're gone I… I… I won't be able to go on. Yugao and Kurenai can help but, you were the only reason I kept going. You are like me. You hid all of your feelings. From the village from your friends, from Yugao, from Kurenai and you even tried to hide them from me. It didn't work though; I could see the pain. We both wore masks but you made me take mine off. I don't know how much you tried to hide, I don't even know if you knew but I knew you hide all of your pain. I don't know how I'll keep going on. With this mark, I won't last; I will have failed you. I don't want that so; I guess I'll have to join you." Anko then pulled out a kunai from her pocket and pointed it at her chest, right above her heart. "Goodbye, Nai-chan, goodbye Yu-chan, I hope you can forgive me." Before either of the others could stop her, she plunged the knife into her chest but was stopped. A strand of blue chakra had come out of the cocoon of red, the blood had at this pint completely filled the bubble but Anko could see the silhouette of her brother, his arm attached to the blue strand of chakra. The three of them gasped and gained hope, then the silhouette moved to leave its prison of blood, it left but it was not their brother. It was what looked like a man made of chakra, not in any state of matter, it seemed to be a kind of spirit. It was blue and parts of it seemed to blow away in the wind but it reformed. It was entirely featureless but seemed to look at her sadly, it was Naruto.

It came to Anko and fresh tears poured down her eyes as he went to embrace her, he then stopped and put his hand on her shoulder. She looked and saw that her cursed mark was being dissolved, it then turned to ink floated away into the wind. The figure then looked at her and seemed to smile before starting to fade, it flickered like a dying flame about to burn out. The three of them moved forward to get closer to him, they stared at him for a minute and he looked at the three of them then he went to Yugao first. He put his hand over her heart and she felt a warmth in her core, he then placed a hand over her head and she understood his message. He went to Kurenai next and put his hand over her heart like he had Yugao, she felt a warmth like Yugao had and understood her message too. He finally came to Anko, he did the same as he had the others and she felt his message. His final message to the three of them.

Anko reached out to touch him but they couldn't touch he was like smoke, the figure then extended its arm and tried to touch her like she had him, it made no difference. He them backed away and started to fade away, Anko just stared at where he stood and cried, she muttered one word, "Naruto."

Then a breeze flew through the valley, it whispered something that may not have been real but to them it was all that mattered.

 _"Live on."_

The three of them chocked back final sobs before nodding and with silent tears, left the valley. They met up with the others, no words were said, they simply returned to the village.

(In the mindscape)

"Why did you save her Kurama?" Roshi asked.

 **"I did not, that was the last action of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. His farewell."** Kurama responded sadly.

Tears came to the eyes of all of them as they felt the shock, "H-h-he's d-d-dead?" Fu voiced.

 **"For now, yes, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, son of Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze and Minato Uzumaki-Namikaze, is dead. Now, there is only Naruto son of the bijuu."** Kurama said.

(Aphrodite's palace)

Aphrodite was currently preparing to do something she hated to do, see Artemis. The huntress and she had several differences and most of the time this led to what would be considered minor disagreements by god standards. Now though she couldn't take it, she needed to find out what happened to her daughter, she had held it off long enough now. She would go to her camp and ask of her.

She went to the camp and the hunters were immediately on guard, around her they were always on guard. She was the goddess of the one thing they hated, love. It was something they all hated and feared, which always confused her, sure they had been sworn to celibacy but what was wrong with a little love in your life. It didn't do the rest of the world any harm so why them? She went to Artemis' tent and entered. Artemis sat there and with her power, Aphrodite could feel maternal love coming from her. That was one of the few things Aphrodite liked about Artemis, she cared for her hunters like daughters and that was something Aphrodite appreciated. This time though it was different, it felt desperate, fearful even, she only felt this when a woman was in sorrow at the loss of a child. It must be her son, she did love him which was good but it must be hard to get over a lifetime of hate, considering Artemis was a god that was a long lifetime.

"So, you want to know of your daughter's fate." Artemis said in a matter of fact tone.

"Yes, tell me about her, please." Aphrodite asked.

"She was a strong girl; she was only two at my death but she was already strong." Artemis smiled.

"Of course, she was my daughter." Aphrodite said.

"I can never remember seeing her cry before, I remember that she would always try to pounce on me like a cat when I went into the mindscape."

Aphrodite giggled, "was she happy?"

Artemis' smile shrunk slightly, "she was. She tried to be. She always wanted a family, she always wanted to be loved." She sighed. "But she was like the rest of them, alone most of the time. She had B though he tried to take care of her, as much as he could, he was a child too. He tried to raise her."

"Thank you." Aphrodite said, Artemis simply sighed and smiled again.

"How about I tell you about how she learned how to breath fire, Matatabi allows her full control over fire?"

"Sure." They continued talking about as much of Yugito that Artemis could think of, Aphrodite eventually left with a smile and Artemis was happier at the memories of her second family.


	17. Chapter 17

(3 months later Valley of the End)

Naruto woke up, he was surrounded by darkness, he couldn't move and his entire body felt numb and it was hard to breath. He tried to move his arm but found that it was nearly impossible to get anything to move, he felt weak, his entire body was aching and his brain was screaming at him to do something, he had no idea what he could do so he entered his mindscape and found himself in the exact same predicament. He couldn't move, he kept trying and after what felt like hours he finally managed to move a bit, he moved his arm slightly and all of his muscles screamed in protest. He then after hours managed to move his arm to his face, there was no light so he could see nothing but he found that he appeared to be inside something solid that felt suspiciously like it was stuck to him, in fact it was. He had no idea what had happened, the last thing he remembered was… he was at his house after the sage training and there was blood! Was there an attack? Was he captured? Who? Was it Akatsuki? First of all, he needed to escape.

He started to push his way out of the…. Whatever it was and soon he began to see light, he was nearly there, there was a bright light and he managed to get an arm out of his prison and then his next one, he tore it apart and was blinded by the light of the outside. He tried to get his bearings and was ready for a fight, what he wasn't ready was a shout of 'he's awake!' and a large number of somethings pushing him to the ground and hugging him tightly. His eyesight was returning and he could make out vague colours, there was a green blob, a yellow blob, two red blobs and a grey blob. What was going on?

"What-" He tried to speak but his throat was dry, but how could it be dry? He was in the mindscape so shouldn't he be… Wait the mindscape that meant that these were, "Kaa-chan!" he said but it sounded like his vocal chords had a run in with several strips of sandpaper and some nails. He felt his eyesight come back to him more and he began to make out his sisters and… Garra? They were holding onto him and crying their eyes out. He tried to move but they held onto him more than the red thing he just escaped from. "What? Where am I?" He rasped out.

"You're in the mindscape, we missed you." Fu said.

"What is that?" Naruto asked his throat starting to feel a bit better, the others all looked darkly at the blob of red that just sat there.

"That's… it's blood," Garra said finally, "your blood, you've been inside it for about three months. It hardened after a while."

"Three months!" Naruto exclaimed, "How? What?"

"You went through a… metamorphosis, kind of." Yugito said, at his confused face she continued, "it was, part of the plan that we had, kind of. It wasn't supposed to happen the way it did."

"What happened, what is this plan? I think I'm entitled to know now that I've been in a three-month coma. What did you do to me?" He asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

 **"We changed your body."** Came the voice of Kurama and he turned to see the bijuu and other Jinchuuriki looking at him, he was in the centre of the circle of bijuu. **"You're stronger now, and you now may be able to handle your original plan with yourself intact."**

"Wait, so what have you done to me. I just got over having a tail, it's not something like that is it?" Naruto asked slightly nervous before he looked himself over and found that he was completely red, he screamed slightly, "what's this? Why am I red?"

"Naruto that is the residue of the blood, it's stuck to your skin." Hana said, Naruto calmed down.

 **"We don't think it will actually have any negative influences on your appearance."** Chomei piped up.

 **"What we did was force a small bit of our chakra into your body at a time to get it used to all of our chakra, we then increase the chakra input to the point you would need to survive the output we would have as the Shinju."** Shukaku said.

 **"Think of it as the single most painful vaccine in the world. Unfortunately, because you can't have all of our chakra pumping into you at all times we got your body used to having no bijuu chakra in your system."** Saiken said.

 **"The process was speed up due to you bringing nature chakra into the mix, for one thing it increased the influx of our chakra being absorbed due to the fact that your body learns to absorb nature chakra so learns to absorb our chakra accidently, this wouldn't be bad in itself but it's how fox nature chakra reacts."** Gyuuki said.

 **"It stayed in you constantly for the times you were a fox. Remember what we said about nature chakra sort of stops our chakra from doing anything, like heal you with Orochimaru? Well you basically absorbed our chakra but didn't do anything with it so it just sat there."** Kurama said.

 **"It would be like building a dam made of ice. It held back way too much and then when you melted it the influx nearly destroyed your body."** Kukuo said.

 **"It basically caused a metamorphosis, unfortunately we miscalculated. Because of the bijuu chakra it basically tore your body apart, at the start you lost the majority of your chakra. It kind of gained form and walked about like a ghost for a bit. Scared the absolute shit out of us."** Isobu commented.

 **"In the end, your body was remade and now you are capable of surviving both being put in the juubi's husk and having Kurama's chakra removed from your system."** Matatabi said.

 **"Congrats, you will now be able to survive any possible situation that occurs in the future."** Son Goku said darkly.

"Ok so why didn't you tell me any of this?" Naruto asked.

 **"Because of the pain you'd be in."** Kukuo said sadly.

"What pain, sure I'm a bit stiff but…" Naruto trailed off at the looks on the faces of his sisters.

"Naruto, you created that sphere of blood within the first few hours." Yagura said sadly. Naruto suddenly felt a headache coming but he was unsure why.

 **"Naruto, this metamorphosis, it caused you to go through every memory of you using my chakra."** Kurama said sadly, **"you've repressed it now but, you went through every time I healed you. I'm sorry, this is the real reason."**

Naruto's headache was worse, he was seeing flashes, images, people, hurting him, he felt every single strike. Every blow, every single time he felt pain, he remembered it all. He held his head as agony went through it. He remembered now, he was in the dark and he remembered all of his beatings, he was forced to relive every memory he had of his abusive childhood. He also remembered that time. He remembered who was there, he remembered seeing his sisters hurt him, but he remembered that someone used a henge. He never figured out who though, he remembered two people in particular though, one he remembered the Hokage saying was killed in the T and I department. The other he couldn't remember well but he remembered what she looked like though.

"I need to see my sisters." He whispered. He needed them to be here, they helped him after the last time this happened, they helped him get over it then, they could help him now.

"We're here Naruto, we'll help you." Yugito said.

"No, Snake-neechan, no, Anko-neechan but…" He was confused, thee memories were being disorientated. Anko hurt him, no it was a henge, or was it? No Nee-chan never hurt him, she was there for him. The memories were hurting again, he screamed out, who could he trust?

"Naruto calm down." Fu said, she knew he was talking about his, other, sisters. She hated them, Naruto was theirs, Naruto was hers.

"Nee-chan! Help!" Naruto screamed. Yugito and Fu came up to him and tried to help him but he was thrashing about too much. "Monsters, Nee-chan's not real! No, she is, she'll help us!" Naruto said. "But she's not here. No, she has to, she helped before. No, she tricked you." Naruto was holding his head in pain, the memories were conflicting, he didn't know who was real anymore. He remembered Anko hurt him. Snake helped him. Snake is Anko, no, Snake never hurt him so she couldn't be Anko. Who's Kurenai then, no there is no Kurenai she's a monster, Bat, Bat helped him. She saved him from the monsters. Cat yes Cat, the three of them helped him, the saved him. Yugao, Yugao tried to hurt him. So, Cat couldn't be Yugao. Yeah, he needed to find them he needed to find Cat, Snake and Bat. They would help him. Who are these people? Did they help him? Wait he remembered now, Kaa-chan brought him here, and these were his brothers and sisters. But wait if these were his brothers and sisters then were they Cat, Snake and Bat? They must be. Yugito had a big cat, Matatabi, nice cat so she was cat. Fu could fly and had wings, she's a bat. Then who's snake? Hana? No, she couldn't be snake. Yagura? No, she was a Mizukage, he knew Snake was an ANBU and a Mizukage isn't an ANBU. So, who's Snake? He needed Snake-neechan.

He then collapsed and the other Jinchuuriki heard him mutter something under his breath, and he then collapsed. His mind unable to handle all of the stress.

 **"It's a shame but it worked."** Kurama said sadly, **"he hasn't even heard about Konoha yet."**

"What do you mean it worked?!" Fu shouted incredulously.

 **"He's started to hate them, his old village, he thinks they are monsters. Unfortunately, he thinks that his Nee-chans are Snake, Cat and Bat. His memories are conflicting and changing, it's a bad idea to try to mess anything else in his head. It's driving him insane."** Kurama said.

"We need to help him! What can we do?!" Yugito asked.

 **"We can't, anything we do will just make it worse. I'll try to repress the memories but he will need much more support, the mind is a fragile thing, his has already come close to breaking."** Kurama said.

"Isn't there anything else we could do?" Fu asked sadly.

 **"No, all you can do now is try to keep him sane."** Kurama said, they all looked down to the figure completely coated in dried blood, each thinking the same thing, 'We will help you.'

Soon Naruto awoke, still in the mindscape and looked around, his family was there. His Kaa-chan was talking to the other bijuu and the other Jinchuuriki were talking amongst each other, he sat up and realised he was still coated in blood, he needed to get cleaned. Well he could do that later, he was trying to think about what happened, he just got a sense of déjà vu and felt that it was a bad idea to keep searching.

"Hey, what happened?" Naruto said and all eyes turned to look at him, they all looked relieved that he was ok. Now he felt much better, his throat wasn't as rough anymore and when he spoke it wasn't as course.

"You're awake; we were so worried." Fu said in a subdued tone. "We thought… we lost you."

Naruto got up and hugged her, bringing her close as she cried into his shoulder, "It's ok, I'm here." Naruto muttered, "what happened?" He asked.

"You just collapsed, we thought that… the process failed in the end but you're ok now." Yagura said.

"Wait, how long was I out for?!" Naruto asked now worried.

"Just a few hours, it was probably just from the exhaustion." Yugito lied.

"Good. Damn it, Baa-chan's going to kill me." Naruto said, all of the other occupants of the room shuffled nervously at that. "What, what's wrong?"

"Naruto, Tsunade… she thinks you're dead." Roshi said. Naruto looked shocked.

"What? But, how? Why? What happened?" Naruto asked.

 **"It was my fault, Naruto."** Kurama said.

"What? Kaa-chan… What happened?" Naruto asked confused.

 **"The… transformation, it gave off a lot of bijuu chakra, when it happened all they saw was you be surrounded by my chakra. One of the elders, Danzo, convinced them that this was me trying to escape. He said that you had died and that I was keeping your body as a conduit of my will."** Kurama said sadly.

"I've got to go and talk to them, convince them that they're wrong!" Naruto shouted.

 **"They would never believe you, Naruto they watched you bleed for hours, you looked dead. They had the Hyuuga look at you, all he saw was my chakra."** Kurama said.

"But… Anko, Yugao, Kurenai… they'd believe me." Naruto said.

 **"Naruto, remember when we said that some of your chakra took a form that looked like a ghost?"** at his affirmative nod Kurama continued, **"your… sisters saw that, Anko was about to take her life, 'you' saved her and then faded like a flame. They would think you were an imposter trying to hurt them. We can't go back to the leaf village."**

"Wait, where are we?" Naruto asked.

 **"The Valley of the End."** Kurama said.

"But… how?" Naruto asked.

 **"Tsunade, brought your body her to make sure that if I escaped they would know. I also, removed any memories Tsunade had about us, and all of those involved in the mission to sand, they can't know anything about that."** Kurama said.

"But…" Naruto began.

 **"I'm sorry, but we simply can't risk someone finding out anything."** Kurama said.

"I… I understand, but where do I go? What can I do?" Naruto asked.

The Jinchuuriki all smirked, "You can come with us." Roshi said.

"But you're an Iwa nin… wait what do you mean by us?" Naruto asked.

"Well, we've decided that now would be the time to stay together so most of us decided to team up and survive these next few years." Hana said.

"We're currently guarding your real body as we speak, some of us decided not to come though." Yagura said.

"But, you're the Mizukage." Naruto said, Yagura's smile faded slightly and she looked sad.

"The humans, they decided that a demon shouldn't be the leader of the village, I tried to bring Utakata back and they, rejected that decision. They thought that having two demons was a bad idea and that we should be under the council's control. They attacked me but underestimated a Kage level opponent, they lost but…" Yagura's eyes teared up slightly, "Mei showed up, she thought I was attempting to kill the elders in an attempt to take political power, she attacked me but… I couldn't kill her, I left her and then the village. Me and Utakata, we went here and found Roshi and Hana, the Kage of Iwa thought that Roshi and Hana were getting too powerful, decided to restrict them more. We made it here and built a cave to hide in, we brought your… egg? In here as well to protect you."

"So, it's just the five of us then, but what about the rest of you are you going to be ok?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, we'll be fine." Yugito said and B agreed with a nod.

"Thanks for caring though. I'm only staying because, well I thought about what you said and decided that I'll try to see if there are any nice humans. So far I think I've found one" Fu said.

"That's great, what about you Garra?" Naruto asked.

"After our fight, I have been trying to connect more with my brother and sister. After a while we have become closer, I think that I should give them a chance and, thank you. The time that I've spent with them has been fun, once they managed to understand that I wasn't going to kill them, we managed to get along better." Garra said, "we've become closer and some of the villagers are starting to be less scared of me too."

"Ok, so what about us, where will we go?" Naruto said, facing the group who he was going to traveling with.

"That, I guess that is something only time will tell." Roshi said.

"Well I guess, we've been in here for a while now, I kind of want to you know, stretch my legs out, get some fresh air, maybe remove some of the blood from my skin." Naruto said as he looked on his skin distastefully.

"That's ok, remember you're still in the, let's call it an egg, in the outside world, so don't panic or anything." Hana reminded him.

"Thanks, see you out there." Naruto said and then left the mindscape, followed by the others, the bijuu were left alone in the mindscape.

(In a cave)

Hana, Yagura, Roshi and Utakata woke up and looked around their cave, it was quite beautiful. Roshi and Hana had carved the cave out of the rock and then sealed it off with a larger rock wall so that no one would see it, inside was lit with several glowing liquids that coated some of walls thanks to Utakata, several bubbles of the same solution were also floating at the top of the cave like fireflies wanting to escape. The liquid was a turquoise colour and filled the entire room with its glow. There was a large water supply, provided by Yagura, for them to bathe in and a fresh water supply from outside to drink from, there was plenty of food as both parties brought enough to last a few months. There were sleeping bags on the floor for them to sleep in which they were just emerging from now.

They all stood and looked to a glowing red orb set up in the middle of the room, it looked as it had in the mindscape. Suddenly the orb exploded in an enormous blast of wind revealing Naruto, covered in blood still standing there.

"Pft, show off." Roshi said.

Naruto was then tackled in a hug by all four of them and was brought to the floor where he was mercilessly crushed under the weight of the four of them. They all laughed and eventually got off him when he complained that he needed a wash, he looked around the room and saw that his bow was leaning in a corner, right next to his… to his Nee-chan's sword. He remembered her showing it to him and agreeing to eventually teach him how to use one of his own in the future, that felt so long ago now. He'd never get the chance to… no, once the Akatsuki was sorted out he would go back, maybe she could forgive him, maybe things could be like before. He tore his gaze away from the weapons and turned to see a large pond.

"Can I wash up in there." He asked Yagura.

"Yeah, that's why it's there." She replied, "here take this," she handed him a sponge.

He walked to the edge of the water and slowly walked into the pond, he sighed at the feeling of washing after so long in the blood. He went in and at its deepest the water was just below chest level, He took a deep breath and submerged himself in the water. He soon emerged and began washing away the blood, it was disappearing but was turning the pond red too. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the water on his skin, he rubbed the water through his skin until he was sure that he was completely clean and then sighed, he stayed in the water for a few minutes enjoying the sensation of it on his skin. Finally, he reopened his eyes and found that the entire pond was now the same deep red as his skin had been a few minutes prior. He winced, Yagura would probably be a bit irritated but he was clean now, he made his way out of the water and looked about for a towel. There was none present, he decided that looking about the cave would be a bad idea so he decided to ask for help.

"Hey, guys, do you have any towels." Naruto asked and found out the cave gave his voice an echo. A reply came in the form of Hana's voice.

"Yeah, here I'm coming over so cover up." She called, her voice echoing around the room, Naruto quickly re-entered the water so that she wouldn't see him, Hana came into his vision and looked around for him. "Where are you?" She asked.

"I'm here." Came Naruto's voice from the pond, she noticed the water was dyed red, shadows from the lack of light made it look a rather menacing scene.

"Yagura's not going to be happy with what you did to her water." Hana said.

"Yeah, I know," she saw his silhouette standing there in the water, "but I didn't particularly want to be covered in blood twenty-four-seven."

"Yeah, anyway, here's a towel for you, we have some clothes sorted for you, you're going to have to stay incognito so we have a cloak for you to wear." She said and set the towel by the edge of the pond and walked away. Once she was gone Naruto re-emerged from the water and got a towel, it was lovely and fluffy and he enjoyed its texture against his skin, after the blood anything would feel good, he closed his eyes and dried up quickly, he wrapped the towel around his waist and then went to where his siblings were. He saw that the four of them were situated around a large bubble of glowing liquid which gave off its light brighter than the others, they heard him coming and turned to look at him.

They all gasped at what they saw, Naruto was confused, "what's wrong?" He asked.

"Otouto, we're sorry, we never… I thought…" Yagura began but couldn't continue.

"We… the… we're sorry." Roshi said.

"We didn't know… sorry." Utakata said.

"I… it wasn't supposed to be this way." Hana said sadly.

"What are you talking about, you're scaring me. Did the process fail? Am I dying? What is it?" Naruto said nervously, he feared that they found out he was dying or something.

"No, you're fine. You won't die, you'll be ok, but…" Roshi began, "Yagura, show him."

"Ok," Yagura sent an apologetic look to her brother before doing hand signs.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked but Yagura finished.

"Water release: Water mirror." She said and then created a mirror out of water and Naruto saw his reflection.

"What? But… you said I was fine!" Naruto said. His reflection showed what he looked like now and it wasn't pretty, his entire body was littered with all of the scars that ever happened in his life, there were burn wounds, large gash wounds and entire portions of his skin that looked like they were cut off and hastily sewed back on. His skin was now red from all of the scars and looked horrifying, he looked like something out of a nightmare, a corpse torn apart and sown back together too many times. Most of the scars overlapped to the point there wasn't a single inch of his skin not covered in the crisscross of cuts and burns. He made out a scar on his chest that stood out amongst the most, it was branded onto his skin and went across his chest. It said one word, 'MONSTER' he turned and saw that there was a similar brand on his back, it branded the word 'DEMON' from shoulder to shoulder. His hair and his eyes were the only things he recognised as his own, the blonde hair untamed still sat atop his head and his eyes were still the same blue they always were.

"We're sorry, we thought they would heal." Yagura finally spoke after a few minutes.

"Mindscape, now!" Naruto snarled, and the five of them quickly entered the mindscape.

"What the hell did you do to me!" Naruto shouted at the nine bijuu in the centre of the mindscape.

 **"What do you… what happened?!"** Kurama said, after looking at Naruto's form.

"You know what happened, now what did you do to me?!" Naruto yelled again.

 **"Shit, it must be because the process was rushed."** Gyuuki said.

"Well then fix it!" Naruto yelled.

 **"We… we can't."** Son said sadly.

"What do you mean you can't fix it?! Kaa-chan you fixed me before!" Naruto screamed.

 **"That was straight after or during an… attack. These have scared, I'm sorry but they will stay."** Kurama spoke sadly.

"Why, what about Baa-chan? She can heal anything." Naruto said.

 **"No Naruto, this isn't something that can be healed. It is technically already healed, that is why it has scared. There is nothing we can do about it."** Saiken said.

"But… I don't want to look like this!" Naruto said, tears escaping his eyes.

 **"We're sorry, there's nothing we can do."** Kukuo said.

Naruto just collapsed onto the floor and left the mindscape, he then went to a corner of the cave and began to cry. His brothers and sisters looked at him sadly and tried to approach him.

"Otouto," Yagura began, "we're sorry, but please, get up. We can make it through this." She pleaded. "We still love you and nothing will change that." She whispered and then brought him into a hug. The others joined in and they sat there for a while.

Finally, Naruto spoke up, "please don't leave me." He whispered.

"Never, we will always be there for you, and so will Garra, Yugito, B and Fu." Roshi said.

"I… I don't want them to see me like this, can I have that cloak please?" Naruto asked, he didn't consider himself a vain person but in his opinion, he looked pretty good, now he was a monster.

'No one will ever love you again.' The voice in the back of his mind said, but he ignored it.

Utakata went to get the cloak and the rest of his clothes, he returned with something that looked familiar to Naruto, it looked like his old jacket and trousers, there was a mesh shirt and thick boots for him to wear. The jacket and trousers were now a much darker orange to the point where it reminded him of a tiger, it had red highlights like his old outfit but was slightly bigger. Utakata also brought a pair of gloves whish were simple black leather gloves, he handed these to Naruto who put them on and realised this new jacket came with a hood, he kept it down for now but then Utakata handed him a facemask, it was a dark grey colour. He placed it over his mouth and then he was handed a bandana the same grey colour which he quickly put on, after that he put his hood up, now the only visible part of his face were his eyes and the bridge of his nose which thankfully wasn't as scared as the rest of him. Then Utakata handed him a black cloak, on the outside it was completely black but the interior of the cloak was silver that seemed to reflect light. Naruto didn't know why but this colour made him happy, he wrapped himself in the cloak and turned to his siblings.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"Looks great Otouto." Yagura said happily.

"Here," Hana said, "we have something else if you want it." She then handed him a box, Naruto took the box and opened it to show that there was a mask inside similar to those the ANBU wore, it was white and had two protrusions at the top of its head in the shape of ears with red to highlight the inner parts of the ear. It had what looked like three eyes, two for him to look through and one in the centre of his forehead, the eyes were ovals with two extra ovals that went around the original ovals. A line went down about halfway through the mask through the centre eye. On his chin was an eye similar to the other three but much smaller than the others. Finally, the mouth was a horizontal line that had a triangle pointing upwards to his nose. (Menma's mask from road to ninja)

Naruto looked at the mask and smiled under his facemask, he put it on and looked at his siblings. "Thank you." He said, his voice came slightly muffled and deeper thanks to the mask (again, think Menma before his mask comes off). He then pulled the hood of the coat up and looked at the exit of the room, "I think it's about time you explain the plan in full to me now."

"Fine," Roshi said, "Naruto we…"

"Don't call me that," Naruto muttered darkly, "I need a new name, Naruto is dead."

"What do you want us to call you then?" Hana asked uneasily.

"Call me… Sionnach… Sionnach Rua." The now named Sionnach spoke.

"Odd choice, but fair enough." Yagura said.

"Anyway, our plan was to, well we are all going to undergo a similar process to yours but ours won't be interfered by sage chakra like yours was so will happen much slower and much less… painful. Sorry." Roshi said wincing at the end.

"And then we all get captured by the Shinju?" Sionnach asked confused.

"Sort of, you see we each split a part of each of our bijuu off and placed them in areas hidden from the Akatsuki, each of us will be absorbed by the Shinju and all of our souls will act as a transmitter and will also use each other to keep our souls together, we will bring the mindscape into the Shinju and will use it to hold our souls together. You, being the last of us will find the bijuu's chakra and connect with it to become a sort of Jinchuuriki to a pseudo Shinju but Kurama will take over its mind then you will be absorbed and we overload the Shinju like we planned." Roshi finished.

"So, it's just my plan with more steps and more danger for you?" Naruto asked.

"… Pretty much yeah." Hana said.

"Fine, if that is how it must be, then we shall do that but you will survive right?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, we all survive this way." Utakata said, 'if we're all very lucky'. The chances of them all surviving were minimal and nothing save divine intervention cold stop that.

"Ok then. I think now would be a good time to train in sage mode." Naruto said.

"Agreed, we will train for the next few years and we'll destroy as much of Akatsuki as we can." Yagura said, they then all did their hand signs for the summoning jutsu and summoned their personal summons. Naruto looked down and saw the Kokatsu and smiled behind his mask, she looked happy and looked around the room excitedly.

"Naruto? Where are you?" She called out.

"I'm here." Naruto barked out to her she looked at him.

"Naruto, why are you wearing all that?" She then tilted her head cutely and both Yagura and Hana felt the need to hug the young fox.

"I have to now, my name has changed as well, Kokatsu-chan. Could you call me Sionnach Rua now please, I'm still Naruto, could you summon me to talk to your mother." Naruto asked.

"Um sure Sionnach, why are you called that?" Kokatsu asked.

"I'll tell you later, but for now I need to talk to your mother." Naruto said.

"Fine." She then de-summoned and Naruto was summoned to the world of foxes.

 **"Who dares appear in my- Naruto-kun is that you?"** Came the voice of the boss summon of the foxes, Shinrin. She changed to her human form but kept her tails which covered her.

"What happened?" She asked, "I can smell lots of blood on you."

Naruto sighed and then removed his cloak, he removed his facemask and bandana as well to show his face. Shinrin gasped and went over to him, she touched his face and he flinched.

"What happened?" She asked, Naruto went on to explain the details of his transformation.

"So, could you continue my sage training?" Naruto asked.

"Of course, but should you not," at the blank look on his face she decided he needed something to keep him occupied, "we shall start right away." She then led him back to the waterfall where he first learned sage mode. "Now, you must draw in the sage chakra without using any of the water." She then showed him how to do so and kept an eye on him as he transformed. She didn't want him to absorb too much sage chakra.

(One week later)

Naruto had learned how to properly transform into a fox at will and had learned how to move in that form, he was happy to find that his scars didn't stay in his fox mode. He stayed as a fox more than a human because of the lack of scars. Now he was learning more about sage mode from Shinrin.

"Now, you have learned how to transform, it is time to learn to control the transformation, you see when you first learned to do the sage mode you transformed into a red fox probably because you lived in forests most of your life, but you must know that there are other types of foxes to transform into." She went through a list of foxes that sages would eventually transform into, "so first we are going to get you to transform into another type of fox, let's try arctic, there are no differences in ability, these are just to look different. These transformations are just helpful for different climates, they can naturally give you an advantage in certain terrain, for example arctic foxes are able to survive the cold better. To train in this form you must transform in a colder climate." Shinrin said and brought him to a colder area of the fox's land.

Naruto had discovered that due to the variety of climates that some foxes were used to the land the foxes lived in was split to manage the different ecosystems. The land itself was very large and Naruto had now met many of the different foxes, they were all polite and kind to him. Once they learned that he could speak their language most of them welcomed him to their families and said that he was allowed to summon them at any point. Some of them asked for a snack as compensation but that was ok with Naruto.

Now he tried to enter sage mode in the arctic climate he found that it was harder for some reason, eventually he managed it but he found that it took longer than normal. When he opened his eyes he found that he could see more clearly in the snow, he looked at his fur and saw that he wasn't white like he thought he would be, now he was a bright silver. He blended in with the snow somehow but he was sure that anywhere else he would stand out easily. His tail swished around him and he decided to tell Shinrin that he was done, he turned and found her looking gobsmacked.

"What is it?" He asked.

 **"You've grown your second tail."** She said, he looked and found that she was right. A second tail was behind him like the first swishing absent minded, he found that he also felt slightly bigger. He found that he was now about the size of a large dog and was pleased.

"You look surprised." He said.

 **"Most don't grow a second tail for years, you've only been training a few weeks."**

"Maybe I'm just awesome."

 **"Maybe…"**

(A year later)

Naruto had, at this point mastered all of the different terrains he could and had raised his tails to four, he found that he preferred being an arctic fox, he didn't know why but his fur just seemed appealing to him, it glinted silver and seemed to glow when he wasn't in the arctic area. It was decided that now he would return to see his siblings and maybe make a name for himself back on his home. He would meet up with his siblings and travel for a bit before the plan came to fruition.

He arrived in the cave in the Valley of the End, he found that there were five figures there waiting for him. Fu, Yagura, Hana, Roshi and Utakata. As soon as they saw him he was grabbed into a hug by Fu who was sobbing on his shoulder.

"What happened?" He asked her.

"Akatsuki, my village sold me out- I thought that someone who would help me. I was at the chunin exams in Suna on the way home two Akatsuki members attacked me I managed to escape but my two teammates just left me, laughing. They said that the elders decided I wasn't useful to them." Fu cried. Naruto patted her back and soothed her as best as he could.

"You're ok, we've got you, you'll be ok." Naruto said.

"Thanks, otouto." Fu sniffled.

"So, what do we do now?" Utakata asked.

"Have you all mastered sage mode?" Naruto asked.

His reply was to have all of them enter their various sage modes. Utakata gained a circle with a smaller circle in the centre of his forehead and strange lines under his eyes (Hashirama's sage mode). Hana had her armour on so not much could be seen other than her eyes going completely black with slightly darker bar-like pupils. Roshi grew a small amount of fur on his body like an orangutan. Yagura's skin took on a slightly green hue and her back seemed to bulge out slightly like there was a shell there. Finally, Fu grew a pair of insect wings and her face was covered in a mask like Chomei's her skin also looked like an exoskeleton of an ant but it was hard to see.

Naruto then smirked and there was a puff of smoke which covered his form, when it was gone a large silver four tailed fox sat in his place, it was about the size of an elephant and his fur seemed to glow in the light if the cave. The others looked in awe at his transformation.

"I think his looks much more impressive." Hana commented.

"Yes." Naruto said, he then shrank down until he had a singular tail and was the size of a small puppy, he then jumped into Hana's arms and snuggled into her happily. She then petted him and he purred slightly, she was so happy she failed to notice the jealous looks from her sisters.

"Wait," Roshi said, "why was there smoke in Naruto's first transformation but not the second one?" He asked.

"Well, that was me sealing my clothes and all my stuff into a seal on me, I didn't want to leave them lying about so I made a seal that detects sage chakra and then seals away my clothes or unseals them." Naruto said.

"Now," Naruto said, he jumped out of Hana's arms and landed he transformed into his human form and then stood at the cave entrance, "I think it's time we went to the outside world don't' you?" He said, he then looked expectantly at his sibling who agreed with him.

"Now is the time." Yagura said.

"Well then," Naruto punched a hole in the cave entrance, the moonlight entered the cave casting a silver glow over his form "let's get going." He ignored Roshi's muttering of 'show off.'

(In Hephaestus forge)

Hephaestus was busy making weapons for his family, he was preoccupied with thoughts of his daughter, from the other universe, he decided to visit Artemis to ask about her. So, he finished the sword he was working on and went to the camp of Artemis and entered her tent, she was sitting there seemingly waiting for him.

"You hear to talk about Hana?" She asked.

"Yes, what can you tell me about her?" He asked.

"She was a lovely girl when I left, she didn't like the village because most of the people were mean to her." Artemis began and Hephaestus flinched, "she loved me very much, I always used to 'make the monsters go away' she was quite shy though. Always wore thick clothes to try and hide herself. I remember her saying that she was going to build herself some armour so she couldn't get hurt."

Hephaestus smiled at that, she would have his talent in the forge, "anything else?" he said.

"She was very strong, she learned something called steam release, Kukuo was beginning to teach her before I died I remember, it allowed her to put more power into her strikes and also made her faster. She loved to run. There's not much else I can think of, she had it relatively easy by Jinchuuriki standards, she got made fun of a lot but people were more scared of her than anything." Artemis said sadly.

"Thank you." Hephaestus said. "For taking care of her like you did."

"It's fine, I would have helped regardless."

Hephaestus left, Artemis thought over her memories and Kushina appeared again.

"What about Roshi, Utakata, B? Will you hate them?" the apparition asked her.

"No, they weren't treated like humans, I'll treat them like Apollo, I do care for him but like brothers. They don't count." Artemis replied sadly.

"Whatever you say, but what if they act like 'all men do?' What then?"

"I don't know, but I knew them well enough, they wouldn't do that, they wouldn't get the chance."


	18. Chapter 18

(Konoha, three years later)

Konoha had been a much quieter place since Naruto had died, many people had felt the impact of his death though mostly just the rookie nine now eight. Sauske had been constantly on the path of revenge but Naruto's death had surprisingly hit him hard which was strange, they never seemed close but apparently Sauske had begun to see the blonde as a rival after seeing him in the chunin exams. His 'death' had caused Sauske to care more about his team, now he was a chunin and on the fast track to being jonin. He agreed to have Jiraiya seal off the cursed mark permanently after he discovered the drawbacks of it, Orochimaru had tried to send some of his ninja to take Sauske one night about a month after Naruto's death. Sauske had tried to fight them but was defeated, he was rescued by the rookie nine just before they were about to forcefully upgrade his cursed seal to give Orochimaru more control over him. The four attackers had to leave Sauske but in the fray three of them died, they managed to escape thanks to a final sound nin sacrificing himself to let them escape, the ones that died were found out to be named Jirobu, Sakon, Ukon and Kimamaru.

The other two had disappeared but later one of their corpses was recovered in the valley of the end, his name was found to be Kidomaru, the other disappeared. The wounds found on Kidomaru's body looked like a large animal had attacked him but the beast was never tracked down. Orochimaru was angered at this failed attempt to gain the Sharingan and over the years has made numerous other attempts to get Sauske but none of them have succeeded.

Sakura wasn't affected much by the death of Naruto but it came as a shock to her, she began to take her training seriously and began learning to be a med nin from some of the hospital staff. She found that her chakra control came to good use in this area, she works in the hospital when she is out of the field. She seemed to be a prodigy in the field and has been commended by Tsunade herself as a natural prodigy, this caused Sakura to work harder to earn more praise and maybe reach a similar level to Tsunade.

Shikamaru and Choji had become saddened at the loss of their friend, though they weren't best friends Naruto had always been nice to the two of them and Choji was grateful as he didn't have many friends growing up. The both got over the loss of their friend eventually but still missed him, Shikamaru still wanted some of the questions on Naruto answered but felt that now he would never know.

Ino had cried for Naruto when she learned he had died, she had never talked to him in the academy but after he had talked to her during the mission she learned he was different to most people. She had felt that she should have gotten to know him better as he was a nice guy, she was confused as to why he was haphephobic but understood he deserved privacy on that. She wanted to find out but knew that everyone deserved some privacy, though she was a gossip she did understand that privacy is important. She told the others of his condition after his death, she knew that they wouldn't make fun of him because of it and knew that may help the others understand him a bit better.

Tenten remembered Naruto from the academy, he was friendly but seemed to be afraid of her for some reason, she had tried to get him to open to her as the both were orphans and they had to stick together. She remembered that he, like her got his own apartment, she never found out where he lived but knew it was in one of the poorer districts which she always thought was odd. She remembered that one time she had been bullied by some off the older kids and he had tried to comfort her. One of the kids had said that she was too weak to be a ninja and that women couldn't be ninja, he and his friends then laughed at her and she had ended up crying. Naruto had come over to her to ask what was wrong, he didn't get close and tried to stay away but said that he didn't like seeing her cry.

 _"What's wrong?"_ He had asked her.

 _"The other kids are mean to me."_ Ten-year-old Tenten had replied, _"they said I can't be a good ninja because I'm a girl."_

 _"Well that's not true, you can be a great ninja if you want to be."_ Naruto said.

 _"But how?"_ Tenten asked. _"They said girls are too weak."_

 _"Girls aren't weak. Think about Tsunade, the sannin, she's one of the strongest ninja ever. If she can be strong then so can you."_ Naruto said.

 _"How? How can I be strong, I'm not good at anything?"_ Tenten said sadly.

 _"That's not true, you're the top of the class in throwing kunai and shuriken. Why not train in that? Maybe you could be good at using weapons, the ANBU all use swords, maybe you could start there."_ Naruto said, that was where her dream had come from.

After that she stood up and wrapped him into a hug, he stiffened at that and when she let go he ran away immediately. She had shouted after him but he didn't stop, she tried to become friends with him after that but he always looked afraid of him. When she graduated, he was left alone in the class and she felt sorry for him but never saw him until he made it to genin. He was the one who brought Tsunade back, he was so strong, he wasn't the same as he was in the academy.

When she heard of his death she cried for the first time since that day with the bullies, she never got to thank him for supporting her. She learned from Ino, after his death, that he was haphephobic, this came to a shock to everyone when they learned this. She felt horrible, that was why he was afraid of her when she hugged him, she wanted to apologise but he was gone.

Neji was shocked when he learned that Naruto had died, he was strong enough to defeat him effortlessly yet he had died, that didn't seem right. Neji never got to know Naruto too well in the academy and just assumed that he was weak since he failed the academy, he saw that Naruto was different and like the others wanted to learn more about him but after the mission to Suna he had disappeared, two weeks later he was reported dead. No one learned the details of his death which confused Neji even more.

Lee and Kiba both considered Naruto to be a rival, both eventually saw his strength and realised that he was much stronger than he seemed in the academy. Kiba used to make fun of him, Lee on the other hand just ignored him in the academy, now that he was gone they felt that they should have been nicer to him. Lee especially, Naruto had saved his life from Garra in the chunin exams and he never even got the chance to thank him for it.

His team took his death badly, Shino didn't leave his clans compound for a week, no one knew what happened but after a week he left the compound composed. The rookies though could see the tear tracks that still went down his face, he became even more closed off from most of the villagers. He only really 'opened up' to the other rookies. He didn't exactly act much different to how he used to but he talked a bit more.

Hinata took it the worst out of the rookies though, she sat in her room alone and didn't leave for two weeks. She barely ate and just stared blankly into space, her sister and father tried to comfort her but she didn't listen to them. It took Kurenai coming in to her room and talking to her to pull her out of her depression, even after that though she didn't smile as much.

His wake was a depressing affair, it took place in his apartment which caused all the rookies to see where her lived. They never knew where Naruto lived and felt horrible there were only three rooms and it barely fit the people who came to the wake which was another depressing fact. The rookies were shocked to find that only the sannin and his sisters showed up other than them, apparently, they were the only people who cared enough about him to come to his wake. When the rookies asked why so few people showed up the adults just looked at them sadly, this caused them to be more curious to Naruto's life that he only had these few people to care for him.

Another thing that confused them was the overall happiness of the villagers when they heard about Naruto's death. It wasn't announced but after his disappearance word got out about his death quite quickly. Some people began to get parties ready but the Hokage said that anyone who partied over his death would be killed, this scared the villagers enough to not party but the rookies wondered why it was necessary.

His funeral was another depressing affair, the same people at the wake were the only ones to show up. There was no body apparently but the way the Hokage said that made it sound like there was no chance of him being MIA more like there was nothing left to recover. The nature of his death was kept a secret from everyone no matter how much the rookies asked, his sisters and the Hokage would just cry and no one else seemed to know, if they did then they wouldn't speak of it.

Tsunade began to drink more which was nothing new, she was coping with the death of another loved one, the last of her family, as far as she was aware, was now gone. She got angrier at civilians and spent a lot more time with Naruto's sisters but other than that she acted the same as usual.

His sisters were a different matter, the three of them had gone into a depression for a short while, Kurenai and Yugao eventually got over it but Anko never could. She was often seen at the memorial stone staring at Naruto's name, her and Kakashi seemed to have a disagreement as he didn't go there as much anymore. She stayed for hours, she usually put a hand to her shoulder holding onto her last memory of her brother, he took away her pain and helped her so much. She never felt that she got to fully appreciate that. Kurenai and Yugao were the only ones who could get through to her now, Hana and Tsunade could sometimes get through to her but she talked to nearly no one else. Some of the rookies tried to help her but none of them could get through to her at all, any villager who said anything about her brother died immediately, Tsunade allowed it as she was sure that she would do the same.

Naruto's name was written on the memorial stone and all the rookies go there from time to time to remember their lost comrade. They were horrified when they found that people began to damage the stone because of Naruto's name and Tsunade said that anyone who did so would be murdered immediately. This was enforced when Jiraiya sent some seals that would kill anyone who damaged the stone, when corpses appeared by the stone from the people going to deface it people wised up.

Over the years all the rookies had reached chunin or special jonin. Anko had made it to full jonin at some point and was now known as the 'snake mistress'. She was borderline S-rank at this point and everyone who crossed her knew it. Kurenai and Yugao were about the same level and had made names for themselves as the 'genjutsu mistress' and 'blade mistress' respectively. The three of them together could rival a kage in strength and their teamwork was flawless.

Another newly powerful figure had emerged over the years, Sionnach Rua, he was a powerful S-rank shinobi that seemed to spring out of nowhere. He apparently was a mercenary who hunted down many missing nin, he showed up a year or two ago and had by this point been the subject of many rumours. He worked with a group but no one knew their exact numbers, it was less than ten. He was feared by nearly every criminal in the world. A rumour was that if he went after your head there was no escaping, he was S-class and all his subordinates were the same. No one knows where he came from, many believed him to be spirit, some thought he was an angel and some thought he was a demon. Whatever he was he has been taking the bounties of a lot of missing ninja, no one knew who he was and no one could track him down.

His first appearance had been in Kiri where he handed the head of Kurosuki Raiga to the bounty office of Kiri. He then sold the Kiba blades back to Kiri for quite a bit of money. He then went through all the elemental nations hunting bounties down and selling anything the country may want back. His subordinates could sometimes be seen with him but most of the time they stayed to the shadows or just simply weren't there. Sometimes he was spotted by hunter nin but they always avoided him, anyone who attacked him was killed quickly. His subordinates all wore the same cloak as he did and all wore masks like his, the cloaks and masks were the only indicator that it was Sionnach. Many people had claimed to be him but no one knew who he was, many villages had offered or threatened him to join, he simple shook his head and walked away, if anyone attacked him they died. After a while all the villages decided it was a bad idea to provoke him and they ordered their troops to avoid confronting him.

The Akatsuki had been quite these last years, no one knew what had become of them, they hadn't died or dissolved, some sightings had happened but for the most part they had been silent. Orochimaru had also stayed silent in the past year, apart from his attempts to get Sauske, but they were always done by his subordinates, the man himself hadn't been seen in years. For the occupants of the leaf village this proved to be worrisome, this meant he was planning, he never stayed silent for this long.

Kurenai was walking through the leaf village, she didn't have much to do, so went to see Anko, she decided today would be the day she stopped Anko's depression. She and Yugao had been trying for years to help her but nothing they did seemed to help. She missed her brother very much but knew that he never wanted her, or any of them to be sad for too long, he loved them very much and wouldn't want them to be hurting like Anko was. She tortured herself by wasting her life like she did, her brother wouldn't want this. She needed to stop it. Tough love was now necessary.

She found Anko at her usual spot at the memorial, she was standing there holding her shoulder, Kurenai knew that she had to be tough now, it had gone on too long. She walked up and stood beside Anko, she waited for a minute before sighing, she looked up and walked in front of Anko, she blinked in recognition.

"Anko, you need to stop." Kurenai said, "you're just hurting yourself."

"Nai-chan, what are you talking about." Anko said quietly.

"Anko, he's gone, as much as I hate to admit it, he's not coming back." Kurenai said.

"Nai-chan, stop." Anko pleaded.

"What would he think seeing you now?" Kurenai asked.

"Nai-chan, please." Anko pleaded more.

"I know what he would think, he would be disappointed." Kurenai said, tears started to form in Anko's eyes, "he would be disappointed his sister didn't care enough about him to-" She was cut off.

"Don't ever accuse me of not caring about him!" Anko shouted.

"Then prove it, what would he say to you?" Kurenai asked.

"He… he would tell me to stop." Anko whispered and fell sat down, she brought her hands to her knees and started to sob, "but I can't, I can't Nai-chan. I miss him too much."

"I know, I miss him too," she sat down and brought her into a hug, "I miss him so much but I know he would hate himself if I spent my life mourning him. He would blame himself for hurting us." Kurenai said, tears starting to form in her eyes too, "I know he would want us to keep going, so please just stop."

"But… Nai-chan, I don't want to forget him." Anko said.

"And you won't, but he would be disappointed if you keep doing this, it would disrespect his memory. He would want us to keep going, remember his last message?" Kurenai said sadly.

"Live on." Anko whispered.

"Exactly, he wanted us to keep going, he wants us to live." Kurenai said.

"You're right, I-I I just don't want to forget anything about him. I stay here and just try to remember everything, I want all of it back." Anko said.

"Yeah, so do I." Kurenai whispered sadly.

"Why did he have to go away, why did he have to die?" Anko sobbed.

"I don't know, he was the last person to deserve such a fate." Kurenai said.

"It was the kyuubi's fault." Anko muttered angrily, "it tricked him, it pretended to care about him. It killed him."

"Yeah." Kurenai said.

"I didn't think I could hate it more, it took Kushina-sensei, then it took Naruto, he did nothing wrong. Why did he have to suffer so much?" Anko asked.

"I don't know, but he's in a better place now, he's happy now." Kurenai said.

(With Naruto)

Naruto was currently not happy, nor was he in a better place, his current target was getting away, he wouldn't get far but he hadn't had a decent sleep in ages and right now he just wanted to sleep. His current target was a man named Sutsuki, he was a missing nin from Konoha, he attempted to steal the scroll of sealing but failed. It seemed that the security was much better now but Sutsuki escaped, he then had a bounty put on his head as a traitor. It was a small bounty but Naruto didn't want to do anything remotely to do with effort, unfortunately Sutsuki was irritatingly fast, Naruto didn't want to put the effort into going into sage mode for such a weak opponent. He finally caught the man, he was exhausted and wouldn't last long anyway, with a swish of his sword his head was off. He quickly looted the body, then burnt it with a simple jutsu and finally sealed the head away.

"That was easy." Sionnach spoke.

"Of course, Rua-kun." Came the voice of another cloaked figure.

"It was going to be easy from the start, Rua-chan." Came the original Sionnach, that was what they all called themselves in the field. They all knew who was who instinctively so all it did was confuse everyone else.

"Where's Rua?" Sionnach asked.

"Back at the cave, shall we Rua-kun?" Sionnach asked.

"Yes, Rua-chan." They then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The two of them appeared in a cave where one of them removed their cloak and mask to reveal an older Fu. The other figure stayed in his mask and cloak, he went over to a bed and quickly went to bed. Fu went to her own bed. In another part of the cave Roshi was busy reading a book. He threw said book at the still cloaked man, who caught it before it hit him.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"We need to get the bounty for that contract." Roshi said as he grabbed his mask and put it on, "where's my cloak?" He asked.

"In your bed." Fu said irritably as she too stood up.

"Can you not do it yourself?" Sionnach asked.

"No." Roshi replied.

"Then wait until morning." Sionnach said as he tried to drift off to sleep.

"It is morning." Roshi replied.

Sionnach grunted as he stood up and got sighed, "you just enjoy watching me suffer." He muttered.

They then grabbed their stuff and went over to a wall which had a sealing tag on it, they each put a bit of chakra through it and found themselves in anther cave, this one much smaller, they came to an entrance and left. They found themselves in a forest and quickly made their way to the bounty depot, they quickly deposited the head of the target and received their reward before leaving. They made it back to the cave and Sionnach went to sleep, he was awoken the next day by the sound of another person appearing in the cave. Rather several people, Utakata, Hana and Yagura, the three of them took of their cloaks.

"Sionnach, we need to go." Yagura said.

"Why?" He muttered.

"We have come across the location of a particularly… interesting bounty, one you'll want to be here for." Hana said with a smirk behind her red facemask.

"Who?" Sionnach said tiredly.

"Orochimaru." Hana said, Sionnach stood up quickly and smiled.

"You're sure it's not just another fake trail?" Sionnach asked.

"It's a bit vague but he keeps some of his best experiments there, it's in sea country." Utakata said.

"Well, let's go, by the way, how long until the process is fully complete for you all?" Sionnach asked.

"Garra will be finished by tomorrow, Yugito not long after, the rest of us will be another week at least before it is complete." Yagura said.

"It won't be like what happened to me?" Sionnach asked, the others looked saddened.

"No, yours was… a mistake." Roshi said.

"Good, how will we know?" Sionnach asked.

"We will be brought to the mindscape, we will have to watch, it will be quite painful but nothing like what happened with you." Yagura said sadly, "we will all have to watch it happen, you don't though. You didn't make this deal."

"I'm still going to be there for you like you were for me." Sionnach said.

"Naruto-" Sionnach sent her a look, "-Sionnach, you don't have to." Fu said.

"I know, but I need to. You helped me, I will do the same, that's what family's for." Sionnach said, the others felt guilty.

"Now though, we must find Orochimaru, we'll find him before Garra's transformation begins. We'll finally have his bounty and he will be destroyed."

He then went to a seal on the wall and disappeared in a plume of smoke, the others followed his lead, after putting their cloaks on, and arrived in a cave near a cliff face. They exited and found Sionnach standing there waiting for them, he looked at them and spoke.

"So, what is this lead anyway?" He asked.

"Orochimaru was spotted here a week ago," Hana said, "he has a base on one of the islands, people have also reported monsters being found, we'll go into town to see if there is anything else we can find."

"Fine, let's go." Sionnach said.

They split up to cover more ground and asked around the village about anything strange occurring, they all found the same thing. A monster lived at the edge of the village and had been there for years, some ninja had shown up but found nothing, the villagers hated it. They met up later and went over the information, they decided to see the home of this monster to see if it was real. They came to a shack at the edge of the village and found that there was a person in the shack, they would question her to see if she knew anything that could help them.

Sionnach decided to go in alone as all of them could scare her, even one masked visitor was enough to cause panic with most people. He knocked on her door but no one answered, she wasn't responding, he knocked again and still no answer. He opened the door and saw that she was trying to hide from him, she was trying to hide under her bed, he went over to her and gently tapped her. She was shaking slightly so Sionnach spoke up.

"I'm not here to hurt you, I just want some information on a man." Sionnach spoke.

Slowly she looked up at him but shied away at the sight of his mask, it had truly become legendary, some civilians said it was made of the skulls of his enemies and painted with their blood. A lie of course, but it didn't stop many people being afraid at even the sight of it, Sionnach sighed.

"I'm sorry about the mask but trust me, you'd prefer me to keep it on." He said. "Now, I'm looking for a man named Orochimaru, know anything about him?"

She flinched at his name.

"Have you met him?" He asked.

Another flinch.

"Is he on one of the islands?"

Another flinch.

"Why do the villagers think you are a monster?"

"Because… of what he did to me." She spoke for the first time.

"What did he do?" He asked and she flinched again.

"This." She answered finally and removed some of the bandages from her face to show that there were scales on her face, "he made me a monster."

"So, that's how he used it." Sionnach murmured, "he can't actually use it, maybe he had someone who can use sage mode 'donate' some cells or something. I can fix it if you want, I think anyway." He spoke to the girl, she looked shocked and looked at him pleadingly.

"Please, I'll do anything!" She pleaded.

"Fine, what's your name." He asked.

"Isarabi, can you really help me?" She asked timidly.

"Sure, I just need to stabilise the transformation, whoever did this was an idiot, they had no idea what they were doing." Sionnach placed a hand on her forehead and she felt tired. He felt for the sage chakra held in her body, it seemed that there was some way of passively absorbing nature chakra, unfortunately the results were unstable and highly damaging. He found that out when he fought the remnants of the sound four, the first to attack him was struck down immediately but the second looked much more afraid. He looked at her and sensed some sage chakra as well as the chakra of Orochimaru from the mark on her shoulder, he absorbed the sage chakra from it and destroyed the rest of the mark as it had been used to stabilise the mark. She collapsed after, he brought her to a cave and left a clone to keep an eye on her. The clone informed him that when she awoke she was happy to have her body to herself. The mark used a piece of Orochimaru's soul to try to control her, without the mark she was finally free, she thanked the clone and threw away her sound forehead protector. She said she would find a new home and went on her way.

Now that he knew what to do he absorbed the sage chakra from Isarabi, this variation didn't have a strong limiter like the other marks did so he figured that her mark was an earlier model or had failed at some point. After all the sage chakra was gone she removed some of her bandages and cried in happiness, Sionnach watched this happen for a while before asking her questions again.

"So, where is Orochimaru?" He asked her.

"He left a while ago, I don't know where he is… but I know where his base is! I can bring you there." Isarabi said.

He left the shack and she brought him to an island where they soon found the lab, Sionnach freed any of the trapped civilians and even a few shinobi, he killed a few guards and then came to a lab where a man was sitting looking over some complicated diagrams, he looked up and was shocked.

"What are you doing here?!" He asked with fear in his voice.

"Are you Amachi? The one in charge of this lab." Sionnach spoke.

"You… You're the Sionnach?!" the man screamed in fear.

"Yes, now are you Amachi or not?" Sionnach asked sounding quite annoyed.

"Yes, I-I'm Amachi." He said.

"Good, now where is Orochimaru?" Sionnach asked calmly.

"I don't know, he just comes by randomly. I swear I don't know." Amachi spoke with fear in his voice.

"A shame," a kunai flew from his cloak and hit the man in the throat, he died quickly. "Another dead end it seems." He said.

He left the base and came back to the village, the newly freed villagers with him. He waited for the villagers to get out of the boat before taking a break and lying down for a bit. He was about to leave he was stopped by a voice he recognised.

"You, are you Sionnach." Came the voice of Anko Mitarashi.

(With Anko earlier)

Anko was on a mission with Ino Yamanaka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga. She had been ordered to sea country to look for the missing villagers. This had been happening for a few years but no ninja from Konoha had attempted the mission, that was why they were sending one of their most powerful jonin and some of the most promising chunin on this mission. They were to find what was causing the missing people and to terminate it, Tsunade and Anko both suspected Orochimaru but there was nothing to show it was him specifically. Sea country was where he had abandoned Anko all those years ago, she wanted to kill him. Maybe if he was here then she would finally have her revenge.

They were almost at sea country and realised they would be there in a few hours. After Kurenai had talked to her she had thought of her brother and had come to the realisation that she was right, he never wanted any of them to be sad. She resolved to stop living that way and try to keep going to live without him, he was gone and nothing was going to change that. She would try not to dishonour his memory, he would look at her from the afterlife with pride, he would be remembered for the rest of her life but she wouldn't keep doing as she had.

They had made it to sea country and went into the village, she saw that people were celebrating, now she was confused. Were these people not supposed to be sad or scared, was there not some big monster attacking them or something? She asked the nearest villager what had happened.

"They have returned. The ones who disappeared." She said, but had tears in her eyes, "but not all of them." She whispered.

Anko's eyes widened, someone managed to complete the mission, maybe there would be information on Orochimaru's base. "Who brought them back?" Anko asked.

"The Sionnach." The woman replied, she told them that he had appeared and brought back the villagers and anyone else. There was a mad man experimenting on them but they were freed, now that they had returned the villagers were throwing a party.

"Do you know where he is?" Anko is, she knew of the Sionnach but never actually met him, no one had. Some of the ANBU got to see him but only rarely, her team was as surprised as her.

"He is somewhere by the docks, he has been resting there for the past half hour." She responded.

The Konoha team headed to the docks and saw a Sionnach lying on the sand near the dock, they wondered how he was comfortable wearing his cloak but just walked over to him. He stood as if he was about to leave but Anko stopped him.

"You, are you the Sionnach?" She asked and he froze before turning around.

Sionnach hadn't seen his sister in years and wanted nothing more than to hug her but knew that he had to be the Sionnach, Naruto was dead.

"Yes," he replied calmly, "what do leaf nin want with me?"

"We just want to know if it was you who destroyed the labs here." Anko said, she felt something, it was like she knew him, she also felt something coming from her shoulder and an even stronger feeling in her chest.

"Yes, it was me, I take it you want to know if Orochimaru was there." He asked.

"How did you know?" Anko asked defensively.

"You're Anko Mitarashi, you were his apprentice for a time. You want to kill him." He replied calmly.

"And how would you know that?" Anko asked almost angrily.

"I have my sources. I know nothing of Orochimaru's location but I plan to kill him." Sionnach replied calmly.

"Why?" She asked.

"He has a high bounty." Sionnach replied calmly. "That and what he does is disgusting, I wish to end his life so that he can hurt no one else."

"Is there anything in the lab that can be helpful in finding him?" Shino asked.

"I don't know, I would recommend you keep your bugs off me Aburame." Sionnach spoke angrily as several bugs fell off his body dead. Shino was shocked as were the rest of his team, his bugs were never found that quickly. Hinata activated her byakugan and gasped, she couldn't see behind his mask, his body also wasn't clear, she could make out some of his chakra system but it was strange it looked very like that of someone close to death. "And I would not try to look too hard Hyuuga, if the Yamanaka tries something she will die." Sionnach spoke.

"Is that a threat?" Anko asked.

"No, a promise, I have killed all who have attacked me, that would be considered an attack." He replied. "Besides, I am sure you have heard the rumours, I have heard of what happens to Yamanaka's who try to enter the minds of demons." He seemed to smirk behind his mask.

Ino gasped and backed away.

"What are you doing?" Anko asked angrily.

"Nothing, I am simply advising her not to enter the minds of those she won't be able to make it out of." Sionnach spoke.

"Your chakra is…" Hinata muttered. To have his chakra look like that he would either must be dying, dead or somehow found a way to interfere with the byakugan. The small amount of chakra that she saw also looked familiar, she didn't know where though

"I know." Was the reply. "Ask one of the villagers to take you to the island if you want to go there."

"No, you will explain what happened here!" Anko said.

"I am no ninja of the leaf and you have no authority over me." He said before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"A clone?" Anko asked.

(With Sionnach)

Sionnach hated doing what he did but he had to make sure there was no connection between him and Naruto. He especially hated bringing up the bad memories for Ino, she had told him that in confidence, he felt like he was taking advantage of her trust. He had to though he just hoped that Hinata didn't remember his chakra signature or get a good look, he hoped the cloak would work better but he was sure the mask worked. She may have recognised him if it weren't for the mask, now that he knew that the cloaks worked on the byakugan he was sure they worked on the sharingan, that would help when they fought Obito. At least the cloak did, at least weaken the perception of the doujutsu, that would be helpful, it was designed to completely hide the chakra circulatory system, but didn't work perfectly since the clothes were constantly moving, the mask worked because it was ridged enough. The cloak must have made his chakra system looked like a phantom, not all there, he remembered Hinata mentioning that chakra stopped working when you were close to dying and when you were dead it looked patchy, that was what he assumed the cloak looked like to her.

Now though he needed to get home, he needed to get rid of the memories. He was stopped by another Sionnach, she grabbed him by the shoulders and spoke in Yagura's voice.

"Are you ok, I know it was hard but it is necessary that they know nothing." She said.

"I know, it's just hard seeing them like that. Let's get home then." He said.

They made it to the cave and all of them went to their beds, Sionnach was the only one who wore his cloak to bed. The others tried to talk him into wearing something different but he didn't, he hated looking at himself, he hated seeing what he had become.

They made their way to the mindscape and saw that Garra was about to begin the process to survive the Shinju. He was in the centre of the mindscape waiting for them, they all stood around him and the process began. He was surrounded in a dome of sand which hardened to allow nothing to penetrate it, he stayed there and after ten hours the process was complete. He came out of the egg and sobbed on the ground for a bit, the chakra forced him to relive his uncle's death, he was forced to see his childhood, being left out, the assassins. It was sad for him. The other Jinchuuriki hugged him tightly and it was eventually over.

(In Konoha)

The team from sea country arrived back to Konoha and went to the Hokages office to be debriefed. Hinata had informed them of the nature of the chakra signature, how it looked like a dead mans, no one should have a signature like that. Anko also said that she felt something in her shoulder and her chest, the shoulder was where the cursed mark was but the feeling in her chest she hoped was for the reason she was guessing. They went to the Hokage's office to debrief, they all entered and began to tell the story, when they got to the part where they met the Sionnach they stopped.

"He was powerful Hokage-sama, he also wasn't alone, though they were faint I saw a few other signatures like his when I activated my byakugan. I didn't count them at the time because I was too confused by his signature. Hokage-sama, his chakra system looked like it was dead, it seemed to fluctuate randomly and parts looked… missing. He couldn't be human. I don't know what he was." Hinata said sadly.

"Hokage-sama, he sensed my beetles immediately, no-one has ever done that before. Either he has studied extensively with Aburame or his senses were so refined he could keep an eye on every single insect. Also, when he killed them… he… I don't know what he did but he used some form of chakra poisoning to instantly kill them, none survived. Even the corpses decayed too rapidly to learn exactly what it was." Shino said.

"And, he knew about my clan…" Ino said, "he knew things that only a few people outside the clan know, he… knew things that even we didn't know until the kyuubi attack. He may have been some sort of demon." Ino looked really shaken.

"Hokage-sama, I felt a… I don't know what but it was like a burst of chakra from the spot where my cursed mark was, we later learned that he removed the mark from a young girl who Orochimaru had experimented on, he may have worked with him at some point to have knowledge of it. The young women we talked to, he may be an escaped experiment of Orochimaru's. But also, I felt a similar burst of chakra in my chest, no one has left a mark of any kind there, in fact the only person who could have… was… Naruto." Anko slowed down and looked thoughtful, "on that day, he…" Anko's eyes widened. "Tsunade-sama get Nai-chan and Yu-chan!" She said urgently.

"Anko, it can't be him. You saw what happened, not even he could heal from that." Tsunade said sadly. "and we can't talk about that day."

"But, he removed the mark, he… his chakra… it touched me in the heart. Where the feeling came from." Anko said excitedly.

"What are you talking about?" Ino asked, "is Naruto alive?"

"No," Tsunade said sadly, "he took too much damage, not even a Jinchuuriki could survive that."

"What is a Jinchuuriki Tsunade-sama?" Shino asked, "on the mission to Suna, the one before Naruto… died, we found him talking to Garra, we didn't see much, they went into a room and set up privacy seals. All we saw was him say the word Jinchuuriki. Later we went to the library in Suna and tried to find anything on it."

"What did you find?" Tsunade asked, slightly nervous.

"It has something to do with the bijuu, we read that it was a way of defeating the bijuu. It involves some form of human sacrifice, we went through the book and found some information on each of the bijuu but Naruto appeared and managed to stop us reading. He took the book and said not to look at the matter anymore, he also advised against saying to anyone here." Shino finished.

"Jinchuuriki are not things you need to know." Tsunade said sternly.

"But why, what are they?" Shino asked.

"They… they are a depressing matter to talk about." Tsunade said.

"Please, we need to know." Ino pleaded.

"Trust me, Jinchuuriki are not something you're going to want to talk about." Tsunade said.

"Tsunade-sama," Hinata said gaining the attention of the room, "the chakra signature of the Sionnach, I said it was familiar, I remember whose it was, it wasn't the same as it was all those years ago, but it is still his. It was Naruto's."

Anko looked happy but Tsunade looked sad.

"Hinata, is there any chance you could be wrong?" Tsunade asked.

"No, Hokage-sama." Hinata said, the room felt much happier except for Tsunade who looked even sadder.

"Anko, go get Yugao and Kurenai. Ino, find Shikamaru, Asuma and Choji; Hinata find team Gai; Shino find team Kakashi. Bring them here immediately." Tsunade said with a grimace, "don't tell them anything though, I think it's time to explain everything to them Anko," she looked into Anko's eyes, "everything."

Soon the teams had gathered in Tsunade's office all of them looked at Tsunade expectantly, Kurenai and Yugao were confused, Anko was happier than they had seen her in years. They all waited for Tsunade to begin.

"You are all here because I think it is time they learn about Naruto's life." Tsunade began.

"Tsunade-sama, that is a bad idea." Kurenai protested.

"There is a reason for this, trust me." Tsunade said. "Anyway, I understand that you all tried to learn about Jinchuuriki in Suna on the mission before Naruto's… death."

The rookies all looked a bit sheepish but nodded, their sensei looked shocked.

"I think you should all know what a Jinchuuriki is. A Jinchuuriki literally translates to 'the power of human sacrifice' you know this," Tsunade said receiving nods from the rookies, "you've actually met a Jinchuuriki before, well two actually but the first was pretty obvious."

"Wait, Jinchuuriki are living things?" Kiba asked.

"Of course," Tsunade looked confused, "why what did you think they were?"

"I thought they were, weapons or something." Kiba said sheepishly.

"Well, that is also seen as true," Tsunade muttered, "anyway, you met one in the form of Garra in the chunnin exams." The rookies looked shocked.

"But, I thought he was a demon, the sand bijuu, Shukaku." Sakura said.

"No, he's not the Shukaku, a Jinchuuriki is someone who has one of the bijuu sealed inside them." Tsunade finished, the rookies looked even more shocked.

"But why would someone do that to someone?" Ino finally asked.

"For many reasons, to stop a rampage, to brag about defeating a demon, to save your family and to make weapons, like Kiba said." Tsunade said.

The rookies looked even more shocked.

"Anyway, Garra's father used a bad seal to seal the Shukaku into his son. That is why he insane, he had to deal with the Shukaku's spirit talking to him at all times. If he slept it would have slowly consumed his soul, he isn't as bloodthirsty as he once was." Tsunade said.

"His father sealed it in him?" Tenten asked incredulously.

"Yes, his father was the Kazekage, most Jinchuuriki are in some way related to the kage of the village or at least some previous kage, in Kumo one of their Jinchuuriki is the current Raikage's brother." Tsunade said.

"You said we've met two Jinchuuriki, who's the other one?" Shikamaru asked.

"The other Jinchuuriki is… was Konoha's own Jinchuuriki, Naruto Uzumaki." Tsunade said.

"What?!" They all asked.

"Yes, he was a Jinchuuriki, want to guess for which bijuu?" Tsunade asked.

"The kyuubi." Ino whispered in shock.

"But, the forth killed the kyuubi." Sakura said in denial.

"No, he sealed the bijuu into Naruto." Anko said sadly.

"But why was it kept a secret?" Neji asked.

"To try to give him a proper childhood." Tsunade spat out.

"What do you mean?" Lee asked.

"Jinchuuriki," Tsunade sighed, "are usually seen as the bijuu they contain, they get blamed for the lives their bijuu took and generally have horrible lives. They tend to be alone their entire lives, sometimes the villages they live in physically abuse their Jinchuuriki, to 'teach it its place'." Tsunade said angrily.

"But since everyone didn't know they didn't do anything bad to him?" Kiba asked.

Anko let out a hollow laugh at that, "he probably had the worst childhood in the world. No one was there for him, he had no one, the third tried to help him but he was the Hokage. He had no one. Then the beatings started, they kept getting worse and worse up until he was seven. Then… then that incident happened." She finished sadly, Kurenai and Yugao shed tears.

"W-what happened?" Tenten asked shakily.

"Naruto… he was taken, someone took him out of his apartment and brought him to a warehouse, he was kept there for three weeks." Kurenai said, "he suffered under the hands of a large group of people, he had everything possible done to him, he was eventually raped that night." All of the members of the room were crying at this point, "for three weeks straight he was tortured, he wasn't allowed to sleep, three weeks, constantly. They gave him drugs to keep him conscious. This was the point where he was put through too much pain, he woke up in front of the kyuubi's cage. That night he met it, it convinced him to trust it."

"We found out exactly what they did to him from the leader of them, your mother, Sakura." Yugao and Sakura threw up into the bin, "the ninjas in the group used henges to look like as many kunoichi as possible, in his mind he was tortured by the entire female population of the village. The kyuubi took advantage of his weakness and convinced him to trust it. He called it 'Kaa-chan'." At this the rookies gained looks of fearful understanding, "yeah, that 'Kaa-chan'."

"We were the ones to find him." Anko said, "we brought him to the hospital and he went into a coma, we don't know what the kyuubi said to him then but he trusted it completely. When he woke, Hokage-sama assigned the three of us to take care of him, unfortunately our faces were amongst those that were used in the henges so we were made ANBU for a time. We helped him since he was seven up until he graduated. There was an incident and we were forced to show our faces, he was tricked into stealing the scroll of seals and got his hands on the key to the kyuubi's seal. He used some of the kyuubi's chakra and attacked us in fear. We managed to calm him down but he still had access to the kyuubi's key. He opened it at some point but the kyuubi didn't leave, it tricked us into a false sense of security. It made us think it wouldn't try to escape."

"He went missing after the mission to Suna," Tsunade said, "for two weeks he was missing and there was no sign of him in the village, he went to the home of the foxes to train with them, he was learning a skill called sage mode from the foxes. He returned in his apartment, fortunately we were there at the time and we had finally found him, we spent some time with him, until… Naruto… he collapsed to the ground, he started coughing up blood. His body started deteriorating, he was dying. We called in Jiraiya, Kakashi and Hiashi Hyuuga to see if they could help, there was nothing we could do. The kyuubi formed a barrier of chakra around him, we couldn't get through to him. We found something about what happens when Naruto uses kyuubi's chakra, his scars appear on his skin. All of them started appearing on his skin. Then there were more and more, they kept coming out of his skin, then his scars opened, it was… horrifying. His blood started filling the container of chakra. Soon it filled up to the top, even if he healed he would have drowned in his own blood. The kyuubi's chakra was building up like a bomb, we decided we needed to get him out of there so I carried him far away from the village and brought his body to the valley of the end." Tsunade finished, tearing up slightly.

"We all said our last words," Anko continued, "soon it was only me Yu-chan and Nai-chan, I was the last to say goodbye, I was about to… do something I would regret. Suddenly I was stopped, Naruto stopped me. He looked like a spectre, he stood in front of me, then he removed the cursed seal Orochimaru put on me. He reached out to hold us but, he couldn't he was made of chakra, eventually he went to us one by one, he put his hand on our hearts and then put a hand on our heads, he gave us each his final message. Then he… he just faded away. We left the valley and came home."

They all just stared at the three of them sadly.

"Is that why you called us here? To tell us how he died?" Shino asked.

"No, he's not dead." Anko said happily. She then explained the mission and their meeting Sionnach. "See, he's not dead."

"Anko," Tsunade said sadly, "I'm sorry, but he is dead."

"What are you talking about?" Anko asked, "of course he's alive."

"No, Anko, Naruto is dead, I can only think of two ways that could be Naruto and neither are good. And, unfortunately, they are the most likely options" Tsunade said sadly.

"See, there are two ways Naruto could be alive, you admit it. I don't care if they aren't good he's still alive." Anko said, though tears were beginning to form.

"Anko, I never said he was alive. There are only two ways that could be Naruto: Option one, like you said Orochimaru could have found his body, in this case he is an edo tensei resurrection. This means that he is nothing more than Orochimaru's puppet. Hinata said that his chakra signature was dead, and we did leave him on the border nearest Orochimaru." All of his sisters cried at this thought, "he may have escaped control but he is still dead and that technique is… evil, he isn't living if that is the case. The other option is worse."

"What could be worse than that?!" Anko yelled through tears.

"The kyuubi's using Naruto's corpse as a conduit of its will." Tsunade said and the room was silent. "For all we know, we played into the kyuubi's hands and freed it from the village. It would make sense, the seal that the fourth used, the dead demon consuming seal is a guaranteed death, if you're caught in it. It summons the Shinigami to eat the soul of the person or thing being sealed, Minato changed it, but according to the third it would kill the kyuubi upon release. There may have been a failsafe that was overlooked, which would be why the kyuubi never tried to escape after its apparent release. It could have been transforming Naruto's body into something more… fitting. That would explain why the Sionnach wears his mask and cloak, it also explains his ability to kill Shino's bugs, his non-human chakra system, his knowledge of the Yamanaka clan's weakness against demonic entities and his knowledge of Anko. The kyuubi may have been planning this for years and I think that, unfortunately, this is the most likely option at this point. Furthermore," here she looked truly heartbroken, "I'm not sure if it truly killed Naruto. The kyuubi may still have Naruto's soul, it could be using it for anything at this point. Naruto claimed the kyuubi knew a lot about souls and explained to him how Orochimaru's technique would backfire on him."

"Why have you told us this?" Ino asked after a pause.

"Because, from now on, you shall all be a team of Konoha, you shall hunt down the Sionnach and, if he turns out to be Naruto's… corpse, terminate him and let Naruto's soul be free. If he is not, then learn his identity and report back to me." Tsunade said.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." They all replied.

(At Artemis camp)

Zoe was one of the oldest hunters of Artemis, she had been there for thousands of years and had reached the rank of lieutenant of the hunt. She cared deeply for the wellbeing of her mistress, but never had she seen her mistress act like she had for the past few years. It all started about fifteen or sixteen years ago, she didn't know why but her mistress had become more secluded. She got distracted easily and started caring less and less about the hunting. She remembered the task that her mistress said she would have to do one that would be dangerous. Was that what this was about, a task? It must have been important for the Goddess to care so much about it, now even some of the younger hunters had noticed her behaviour change. They were asking her for answers she did not have.

She decided to find out exactly what was wrong with her mistress, she entered her tent and saw the goddess sitting in front of a hearth. She just stared into the flames.

"Milady." Zoe said.

"Yes Zoe." Artemis said in a far-off voice.

"Milady, thou hath been acting strange for a long time, what hast thou so worried?" Zoe asked.

"I'm sorry if I've worried you or the other hunters Zoe," Artemis said sadly, she sighed before looking up at her, "I'm sorry, I'll tell you at another time."

"Does it have to do with thine task thou said thou would do?"

"Yeah, it's time draws closer by the day." Artemis said quietly.

"Why not explain thine task to me, I may be able to assist mine lady."

"I shall tell you closer to the time, I'm sorry but it must be this way."

Zoe left the tent, and saw yet another godly visitor coming to the camp, she froze in shock at this particular god. As he entered the tent Zoe wondered what this task was if it apparently involved council with Hades.

She went back to her own tent and went to sleep, she worried about her lady, something bad would happen in the future, she fell asleep and had a dream. In the dream, she was hunting but the prey was hard to catch, it was fast and sly, always finding a way to escape her but finally it could escape no longer. Its fur shown in the moonlight and she fired a silver arrow at the beast hitting it straight in the heart. It collapsed to the ground and Zoe went to collect a trophy, her lady would enjoy this beast. Though not the most exciting to hunt it was a beautiful creature, its fur seemed to give off glow of its own, in the moonlight it looked even more beautiful. The catch was a large black fox with a white back, red lines ran across its body, there were four formations that formed shapes that looked like eyes on its back, the biggest behind its neck, two ones in equal size on each shoulder blade and a small on just above its tail.


	19. Chapter 19

(In the Akatsuki base.)

The Akatsuki had gathered after their three-year break to discuss the bijuu they had to gather.

"Well Zetsu, where are the Jinchuuriki?" Pein asked.

"The Ichibi is now the Kazekage, he resides in Suna, the Nibi is in Kumo and is currently a special jonin, the Hachibi also lives in Kumo, he is powerful but should be no match for any two of us. The Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki died as the bijuu escaped, we don't know where it went but it seems to have faded. The others… vanished." Black Zetsu finished.

"Yup," white Zetsu spoke up, "they disappeared, poof, they're gone."

"What do you mean? you lost them?" Hidan asked.

"They vanished, they defected from their villages and we tracked them, the Sanbi and Rokubi we lost somewhere off the coast of the land of water, the Yonbi and Gobi each went through grass country and fire country. They stayed on the border and we tracked them to the land of hot water, they got on a boat and disappeared, we lost track of the two of them after that. Finally, the Nanabi flew too high for us to see, it went too fast and we have no idea where. They all made sure that they were not found." Black Zetsu said angrily.

"We'll get the Ichibi, then the Nibi, the others we will find." Pein said.

"Ok, so it's my time to show off my art!" Deidora said happily.

"Yes, deal with the Ichibi quickly, and Zetsu do not fail us, find the other bijuu." Pein said.

"We won't." Black Zetsu said.

"Yup, we'll find them quickly." White Zetsu said with a grin.

"Hidan, you and Kakuzu take care of the Nibi once we have done the sealing of the Ichibi." Pein ordered.

(In Konoha)

The rookies had decided to go out to get lunch to think over the information they had just been told. They couldn't believe it, their friend was being used as a puppet by either Orochimaru or the Kyuubi, they didn't know which was worse, they all wished it wasn't true but the evidence seemed to point that way. They needed to get the implications of that thought out. They needed to come to terms with this and hopefully come to grips with the fact that they may have to kill their friend, or at least what is left of him.

"Which option is the most likely Shikamaru?" Ino asked.

"Though it would be better if it were Orochimaru I think the most likely option would be the… second option. It was clearly the reason that the entire… incident happened." Shikamaru said sadly.

"So how do we deal with it?" Sauske asked.

"I don't know." Shikamaru said.

"You don't know?! Naruto's soul could be being tortured constantly by that monster!" Hinata said angrily.

"I know!" Shikamaru said. "But I don't know what to do."

"Why did Lady Tsunade have us doing this mission anyway?" Sakura asked.

"Because we knew his fighting style better than anyone." Shino said, "we know how he fights, and… If it is him, and it's the edo tensei we may be able to elicit an emotional response strong enough for him to resist. If it is the… demon, why may be able to draw out his soul to help us."

"We won't get anywhere like this, we'll plan this out, just… not now." Tenten pleaded slightly.

"Fine, we'll talk about it tomorrow." Sauske said.

(With Anko, Kurenai and Yugao)

The three women hadn't taken the news of Naruto's return well, the three of them had all gone to Naruto's grave to think everything over, the three of them had tears in their eyes as they looked at his gravestone.

"Yu-chan, Nai-chan?" Anko asked after a long silence.

"Anko?" Kurenai asked.

"We're going to free him, either from Orochimaru or… the kyuubi, we'll free him, we'll let his soul rest in peace, then we'll destroy the person who did it to him." Anko said with clenched teeth. "From this moment on, we will avenge or brother."

(A week later)

The rookies had all talked and decided to try to help their friend by freeing him, they would make sure that he would rest in peace. He would have his peace, they along with his sisters had decided to do this for him. They were ordered to silence as the wrong people could hear it and discover that the kyuubi was masquerading as the Sionnach, or that Orochimaru was controlling him behind the scenes. This could be disastrous.

They were currently all training to fight their opponent, nothing was known about his abilities, he killed all his targets and there were never any witnesses. They knew some things about Naruto's abilities but they were from years ago, for all they knew the kyuubi used a completely different style or the edo tensei allowed him to learn new jutsu.

They were brought to the office of the Hokage when they heard there was an emergency, the Kazekage had been kidnapped. Team Gai was on a mission and would meet up with them at some point but they could only send two other teams, they decided to send team Kurenai with Anko acting as the final member and team Kakashi as the two of them had become proficient in tracking. They were soon on their way with Temari, who had been in Konoha at the time of the attack, to Suna to learn the whole situation.

They arrived in Suna and soon found that Kankuro had been poisoned by Sasori of the red sand, a member of Akatsuki. Sakura got to work creating an antidote to the poison and curing Kankuro, soon he was healed and managed to give them a scrap of Sasori's cloak to track him down. An elder from Suna, by the name of Chiyo was decided to go with them.

They picked up on his trail and were soon on their way, they ran into Itachi who they dealt with ease but found that he was some possession jutsu. Sauske was very irritated. They met up with team Gai, who said they fought Kisame. They eventually came to a cave which was sealed, they found that they had to remove the four corners of the seal and team Gai offered to do that. When they unsealed the cave, they were forced to fight copies of themselves.

Meanwhile with team Kurenai and Kakashi the cave was opened and they saw the last of Garra's bijuu be sealed into a statue. They had failed, still, they would at least defeat these Akatsuki members in the meantime. Deidara made a clay bird and flew away and they agreed to split up, Sakura, Sauske and Chiyo stayed to fight Sasori whilst the rest went after Deidora.

Soon Sasori was defeated by the three of them and they learned some interesting information.

They had just defeated Sasori who was now bleeding from his dark heart, Sakura cheered, "we did it Sauske-kun!" She said.

"I know, but the Sionnach will be a harder fight." Sauske spoke but a rasping laugh came from Sasori.

"So, you are looking for the Sionnach?" He asked, "good luck, even my spies can't track him down, well they have found him a few times but they never manage to get him in time."

"Do you know anything of his location?" Sauske asked.

"I might," he gave a chuckle, "one of my spies says he knows something, we Akatsuki have been looking for him to. This spy works for Orochimaru, the Sionnach seems to be hunting him down, maybe if you catch that snake you will find the Sionnach." Sasori spoke with a chuckle.

"Where will the spy be?" Sauske asked.

"The tenshi bridge in ten days." Sasori then died, looking at the first puppets he created.

The team fighting Deidora came back with Garra's body, they claimed Deidora attempted a suicide jutsu but suspected he lived.

Chiyo looked at the body of the young Kazekage, she hadn't let Sakura know but she had been hit by the poison, she had a slight immunity due to years of practicing the art but knew she would die. She looked down on the body of the young Kage and smiled, at least her last actions would try to help the failure she made all those years ago, with Garra's seal. She then cast the jutsu that would take her life and save his.

Garra woke up very disorientated, he thought back to everything that happened since he was 'defeated'.

(Flashback)

Garra saved the people of his village but was nearly out of chakra though, he had hoped to take out the Akatsuki member and have the other bring him to be sealed, mostly out of spite. He arrived in the mindscape to see the others had gathered to support him as he was sealed into the statue.

"Hey, I'll be with you soon hopefully." Yugito said sadly.

Then the sealing began, it felt like a lot of tingling but knew that normally it would hurt enough to kill him. He looked to the others.

"So, when I go in there my mind will connect to the mindscape automatically and we should be able to start weakening the Shinju's mind whilst it is already weak. What about my body?" That was something the bijuu never told him.

 **"Oh, we forget to say?"** Shukaku asked bashfully.

"Yeah, I kind of want to know that too." Yugito said.

 **"Well, your body will basically go into a sort of coma, it will look like you're dead but you'll only be braindead. It will work fine and once we have your body you can go back to it, we'll have to make sure that Yugito-chan is sealed though first. Someone needs to stay in the mindscape to keep it open, for a while at least after a few months you we can keep it open but we need an anchor. Since the Shinju will seal us to its will, we won't be able to keep the mindscape open."** Kurama said.

Suddenly Shukaku and Garra started disappearing from the mindscape, "well, see you." Garra said before he completely disappeared. He then started to look around the new mindscape, it was completely white, he looked around and found Shukaku attached to the roots of a large tree, the tree looked dead. Suddenly he saw a door appear far away from what he assumed was the Shinju, he went over to it and opened it, he found himself in the mindscape again, he found that he was in the centre of the circle, the door he went through now looked like a portal in the ground. It was red and swirled around, it spun quickly but he could make out what looked like the rinnegan with a single tomoe like the sharingan swirling on the outer ring.

"So, it worked?" Garra asked.

 **"Yup."** Came the voice of… Shukaku?

"How are you here?" Garra asked.

 **"I'm not, rather this is the fragment, I managed to use the link to send my soul here, what's in there is just my chakra."** Shukaku said, the bijuu was a lot smaller, he was a full head (bijuu head) smaller than the rest of the bijuu. **"Though I may be smaller now, I will grow quicker now that my soul is in this part, I'll be back to full strength in a few months, my current body is buried deep in the dessert and I won't leave until we go through with the plan."**

"Good now-" Garra suddenly was bathed in a green glow, "what's happening?" he asked worried.

 **"One of the humans is healing you, they're using a jutsu to bring your soul back to your body. I'm sorry Garra but, you won't be a Jinchuuriki."** Gyuuki said.

"What- but how?" Garra asked, the others looked shocked too.

 **"Garra, you can go back to your brother and sister, I'm afraid you won't be able to come to the mindscape, when the plan is completed we will go back to normal. But for now, be a human."** Shukaku said sadly.

"I-I I understand." Garra said, there were tears streaming down his face. "The plan will stay the same no matter what though, I will help when I can." He then faded from the mindscape, the portal to the Shinju's husk disappeared with him.

 **"This changes nothing."** Saiken said, **"it just means that Yugito-chan will have to stay in the mindscape and act as an anchor for much longer."**

Yugito sighed, "if it must be done."

(End Flashback)

Garra looked up at his saviours and thanked them, he felt weak without Shukaku he knew he was considerably weaker. He still had his control over sand but he couldn't feel the back up of Shukaku's chakra, he had his own chakra and the sage chakra but he rarely used it. They all made their way back to the sand village and the villagers all seemed relieved, over the years he had done as Naruto had asked and given the village a chance. He had become closer with his brother and sister, the villagers didn't fear him, as much, and the shinobi all respected his authority. He enjoyed it, now that he had the chance to live it for a while he would, he was secretly glad that he would be able to stay with his brother and sister. He would miss his other siblings but, he loved his family here just as much.

Garra looked out his window and saw a figure standing in the shadows, the Sionnach was on a building. He could also see he had several other figures dressed the same as he was, he smiled a sad smile at them and nodded his head in their direction. The Sionnach reciprocated the nod and turned to leave, the others soon followed but one remained, they looked at him and they both just stared at each other. The figure finally looked down, then they waved and walked away, Garra then looked away and looked at his room sadly, he turned to an item the room had never contained before now, a bed. He couldn't sleep, what was the point in having one. For now, he had years of sleep to catch up on.

(In Sionnach's cave)

Sionnach arrived in the home they had built, when they decided to make a main base they decided to go somewhere no one else would dare to go, the remains of Uzushiogakure no Sato. They found a cave hidden and, with Sionnach's Uzumaki blood, found a large cave system that had many rooms for them to live in. There was not much left of Uzu but Sionnach had salvaged everything he could, there were a few scrolls hidden in blood seals around the village. Sionnach opened them and found a variety of seals which he had been studying, by now he could claim to be a seal master. He had found mastering seals to be easy, like it was in his blood, which it was. Roshi also had an interest in seals but wasn't as good as his brother, he was in a league of his own compared to Roshi. They had managed to discover some of the secret seals the Uzumaki clan hid from the invading forces and had learned much from them.

Now though the atmosphere of the cave was quite sombre, they had lost their brother. Sure, he was alive but he was a human now, that didn't change how they felt about him but they knew that they wouldn't be able to talk to him in any way for fear of their identities being exposed too early. The Jinchuuriki would show themselves to the Akatsuki and Sionnach would finalise the plan, he would make sure that all the bijuu were strong enough to pump most of their chakra into the Shinju. He would then convince the Akatsuki that the kyuubi had taken over his body, they would 'defeat' him and then he would start to be absorbed by the Shinju. By this point the mindscape would be sufficiently strong enough for the other bijuu to pour as much of their chakra through the link and destroy the Shinju. This would weaken them for a short while but the Jinchuuriki would then help them until they gained back their full strength.

Sionnach had went to his room, his was one of the few rooms which had a window, it was a small hole carved out of the side of the cliff they were in. It was hidden from the outside by the same genjutsu seal that cover the entire cave, the moon would shine in at night and cast the room in a pale silvery glow. Sionnach had always felt safe in the light of the moon, it made him feel strong, he assumed all the other Jinchuuriki felt this as the source of their power usually resided on the moon. His room was a mix of black and grey, the moon was the only source of light by night and by day the sun cast its way into the room giving it a glorious golden glow.

The room was empty, there was a rack which held his weapons, his bow at the top and the katana gifted by his sister on a stand beside it. He had not used the katana before, he had trained in using the blade but he had not used it in a fight before. It reminded him of his sister and he made sure that it was never damaged, he often spent hours cleaning it, polishing it. making sure that its silver blade was unmarked. He knew that his sister would have wanted him to use it but he felt that he was betraying her by using it, he was Sionnach, Naruto was dead. Sionnach had killed him.

The bow was rarely used, it was a reminder to him. It was one of the last remaining parts of Naruto and he never wanted it to be damaged. It sat with the quivers of arrows beside it, hung on the wall like a trophy.

The rest of the room was bare except for the large pool in the far corner, he used it to bathe, he had insisted that he had his own room to bathe. He was ashamed and disgusted by his body, he hated seeing himself and knew that he would never get over it. At the other side of the room was a simple bed with orange covers, it was made and looked comfortable.

Sionnach currently sat near his pool, he stared into the water and looked at the reflection of Sionnach. The mask showed no emotion, he looked at it digging to see if anything could be seen through the mask, nothing could be seen. He sighed and took off the mask, the shadow of the hood covered his face, suddenly he opened his eyes and looked back into the pool. All that could be seen was two blue eyes, they were sad, the eyes, the only thing he could see of his face… the only thing he allowed himself to see. He closed his eyes and moved slightly, his hands hidden by his cloak moved, he muttered a word and felt different. He looked back at the pool and the same eyes stared back at him, they looked the same, sad and blue, they shone and seemed to catch the moonlight.

He looked at the pool before removing his hood, his golden hair shone in the moon like threads of gold. He looked at the pool and was drawn to the golden hair, he smiled happily, his gaze drifted down and he took note of the unmarked skin. It was tanned and made him look rather handsome, he smiled wider and a foxy grin came from the water, his whisker marks were still there and made him stand out. He brought a hand to the water and hovered over the image, a tear trickled down his face and he sighed sadly. He brought his hand away from the reflection, and brought them together into a hand seal and muttered 'release'.

The image faded away to be replaced with Naruto's true form, his horribly scarred face, his eyes looked sadder. Naruto sighed and tore the rest of his clothes off and entered the water, he missed his old body, he missed everything.

He cleaned up and went out to the bath, he dried off and redressed in his clothes, he chose a clean pair but most of the outfits were the same. He put on his cloak and lifted his mask, he stared at it for a second before putting it on, he then left his room and entered the main room of their 'home'. He sighed and looked around the room, Roshi was sitting in his seat reading, no surprise. He looked around and decided to take a seat next to him, he pulled out his own book and started reading it, it was a bingo book, this was how he found the bounties he would catch. He knew that it wasn't the best hobby but he needed some form of distraction. Soon the others arrived into the room and all sat around, they waited for a bit before they began to discuss their next plans.

"So, how do we show ourselves without revealing our involvement with Sionnach?" Fu asked.

"Why don't we just show up near where we left?" Hana asked.

"Wouldn't work, the Akatsuki would wonder where we have been and may be cautious. I think the best cause of action would be to have a fight. Give off a lot of chakra and get Akatsuki to notice, then make it easier to track us, not too easy that the other villages would be able to catch us but just enough for Zetsu to find us." Roshi said.

"So, we fight?" Yagura asked.

"Yes, we can make it look like our two groups, Hana and I and Utakata and you," Roshi said, "make it look like we came across each other and get ourselves into a fight. We won't go all out of course, so no bijuu cloaks or sage modes. The fight should get the attention of the Akatsuki and then we split up, they will track us down and we will kill what we can." Roshi said.

"That sounds like a bad idea, why should we split up?" Yagura asked.

"They are more likely to attack us that way." Roshi said.

"What about me?" Fu asked.

"Well, you can just separate from the Sionnach and act like a normal missing nin." Roshi said.

"Ok." Fu said.

"Wait." Sionnach spoke up, "why don't we fight?" He asked causing confusion amongst the other Jinchuuriki, "I mean, why don't I go after your bounties and the Akatsuki 'manage to show up' and capture you before I can kill you?" This caused the Jinchuuriki to look more confused.

"Why?" Hana asked.

"This way you don't get hurt as much, it also may lead to us killing more of the Akatsuki, this way we can get Zetsu to capture you, then the Akatsuki loose more." Sionnach said.

"Why would this lead to more Akatsuki being defeated, are you saying you're stronger than us?" Fu demanded.

"No, but, if I 'make a deal' if we win, then I let you go. We kill off the Akatsuki and then you go off weakened and collapse. Zetsu collects you and we all win." Sionnach said.

"It is a good plan." Roshi conceded, "but, if he doesn't show up to claim us?"

"He will, no doubt about it, I will sense his presence anyway. If he isn't there then we can just split up and do the original plan." Sionnach said.

"Fine." Roshi said.

"Now, when will the process begin for Yugito-neechan?" Sionnach asked.

"Soon, we'll head to the mindscape and wait." Yagura said.

They entered the mindscape and waited for Yugito to appear, she eventually did so and the process began. For Yugito, instead of being wrapped in sand or pure chakra, Yugito was wreathed in the blue flames of Matatabi's, they created a ball surrounding her. B had assured them that he was guarding her body in the meantime and was with her right now, they had gone to turtle island where no one would disturb them. The process was over in a matter of hours and Yugito looked quite shaken, she remembered her worst memories, a lot of which involved watching Naruto suffer, once she was out she immediately wrapped her arms around B and cried in his shoulders like she had when they were younger. B like always supported her and just hugged her back, B and Yugito were close since B had helped raise her, he always kept her safe.

They left the mindscape and all of the Jinchuuriki went to sleep, soon the time would come, they all didn't want to admit that they were afraid. They didn't want their plan to fail they needed it to succeed.

(Konoha)

The rookies had all returned from Suna, they had informed Tsunade of the mission and the fact that Akatsuki were moving again. They had decided that the information at the Tenchi bridge was too big to pass up, Tsunade set up the teams to go, Kakashi was injured from overuse of the mangekyo sharingan so his team had been given a new leader by the name of Yamato. Anko also became a permanent part of team Kurenai, they were the ones selected to go to the Tenchi bridge. The information wouldn't be too hard to gather but they would be going anyway.

The mission was only a few days away, by then they may be able to find some information on the Sionnach or Orochimaru. Either way they would win. They were going to leave today to give them enough time to get to the bridge, they had informed those who did not know out of the rookies about their mission.

They set off to the bridge and arrived on the morning of the deadline, they were not the only ones, a man in a brown coat stood on the bridge. Kurenai got her genjutsu disguise of Sasori on and was about to go to greet their informant but someone else was already walking on the other side of the bridge. The Sionnach.

He walked over to the informant and stood for a minute, the informant spoke as he removed his hood. "It is good that you have come, Sionnach." Spoke Kabuto. "I'm here to tell you of the location of Orochimaru."

"And why should I believe you." Came the voice behind the mask.

"I am unsure if there is any way to persuade you but I have also come on another mission." Kabuto said.

"Another mission?" Sionnach asked.

"I was to introduce you to my true master, he shall be here soon." Kabuto said.

"So, shall we wait." Sionnach.

"No," came the raspy voice of Sasori from Kurenai's genjutsu, "I am not one for keeping people late." She spoke, her voice sounding as the body Sasori used to travel did.

"Sasori of the red sand, a member of the Akatsuki, what are you doing here?" Sionnach asked.

"This is my true master." Kabuto spoke.

"I take it you would like to invite me into your organisation?" Sionnach asked.

"Yes, but before all of that, why don't you reveal your face?" 'Sasori' asked.

"I would consider it… if you weren't dead." Sionnach said, surprising everyone.

"Is that a threat?" 'Sasori' asked.

"No, but Sasori of the red sand died about ten days ago, I also believe you were there, or at least some of your team, Kurenai Yuhi. Why not bring them out here?" Sionnach said, the genjutsu mistress was shocked. "And you should come out to… Orochimaru." He finished, there was a chuckle from the opposite side of the bridge and all the occupants turned to see the snake sannin walking across the bridge, chuckling.

"Kuku, well done Sionnach-kun, when did you figure out I was here?" Orochimaru asked.

"I sensed you from the beginning." Sionnach asked surprising the sannin slightly.

Then Anko and the rest of team Kurenai came out and stood on one side of the bridge. Sionnach was surrounded, on one side stood Orochimaru, on the other stood the team from Konoha. Sionnach stood in the centre of the bridge, he looked at both sides and then finally turned to face Orochimaru.

"I have no quarrel with you leaf ninja, why don't we take care of the snake together, in fact I'll let you keep his bounty, I just want to wipe his filth off the face of the earth." Sionnach spoke.

"Of course, once you remove your mask." Kurenai spoke dangerously.

"Why, I keep this mask on for my own… personal reasons, why should I remove it?" Sionnach asked now facing the team from Konoha.

"Think of it as a sign of trust, and," Anko then grinned, "because we asked nicely."

"Why would I trust you, and why should you trust me?" Sionnach asked.

"We have orders to bring you in for questioning involving the death of one of our ninja." Kurenai said. "Remove your mask and come quietly."

"Which ninja do you have orders to have me brought in for? All of the ninja I kill are missing nin, I also sold their things back to you, I have killed no loyal nin whilst I've been around." Sionnach replied smoothly.

"That may be, but that is only from your time as the Sionnach, we have reason to believe that you were involved in the death of Naruto Uzumaki." Kurenai spoke.

"Naruto Uzumaki? Chunin, blonde hair, blue eyes and whisker marks on his cheeks? Liked using a bow a lot? Jinchuuriki to the kyuubi? That one?" Sionnach asked in a teasing tone.

Anko and Kurenai's hearts were in their throats, this person knew Naruto, he had to either be him or the kyuubi, maybe he had amnesia or something, could this be him.

Sionnach then turned to look Kurenai, he seemed to smirk behind his mask, the only thing they could see were his red eyes that glowed in the darkness of his mask, "never heard of him." He said, "now, I'm going to take care of this rather annoyed looking missing nin and his sidekick. You can help or not, up to you." He then turned and before they could stop him lunged at Orochimaru and kicked him into the forest. He then grabbed Kabuto by the throat before he could react and threw him through a tree. He then jumped after Orochimaru and left the Konoha team amazed, he completed all of this in seconds.

Then they realised he was gone and were about to rush after them, suddenly Kabuto appeared in their path, he was still healing slightly but he still stood up to the ninja he then struck at Anko who had to block.

"Go on, Nai-chan, hurry, I'll take the teme's but-buddy." Anko said with a snarl.

Kurenai then followed the trail of destruction that Orochimaru left, they came to a clearing where they were just in time to see Orochimaru throw himself up and regenerate. He then glared at the Sionnach, who just stood there like this was normal, Orochimaru then rushed at him and initiated a high level taijutsu battle. Orochimaru seemed to be losing but was still managing to dodge all of the Sionnach's strikes, suddenly the sannin moved quickly behind the Sionnach and the kusanagi appeared out of his mouth, aimed right at the Sionnach's unprotected spine. Just as Orochimaru thought he won, a hand grabbed the sword and used it as a grip to throw the sannnin far away.

"One thing you'll learn about me," the Sionnach spoke, another Sionnach beside him, "I am never alone." The other Sionnach was a bit taller and seemed to be buffer. This Sionnach also seemed to be much stronger.

Orochimaru hissed at this new arrival, this would be harder than he thought, he then threw up a huge horde of snakes each with kusanagi's coming out of their mouths. Before they hit they were shredded by a wall of wind the original Sionnach made, there was no warning, so he must have weaved the hand signs beneath the cloak. The snake's bodies fell to the ground and Orochimaru was hit by the remains of the wall, it caused him to have to regenerate another body.

Suddenly the new body was hit by another Sionnach, who stabbed him, again he regenerated, then another Sionnach came and destroyed this body. This happened a further two times, by now Orochimaru was panting, he couldn't keep regenerating like that, it drained too much chakra. He would have to retreat, this Sionnach was too strong, so he quickly dove underground and went to the battlefield where Kabuto was, he quickly grabbed his apprentice, who was losing, and tried to speed out of there. He was then nailed in the back with a kunai. Kabuto began healing him as the two of them ran off.

Sionnach was about to pursue his prey when he was stopped by a kunai at his foot, all of the Sionnach's turned to see that team Kurenai were all staring at them ready to fight.

"Sionnach, by order of the Hokage, you are to come with us." Kurenai said.

"Why, because you think I killed Natsuko Uzuike?" Sionnach asked mockingly.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Anko growled out.

"Whatever, he's dead so it doesn't matter." Sionnach said with a shrug.

Anko growled and Kurenai looked murderous, the other members of the team also looked very angry at him, "then you don't have anything to hide, now remove your mask and come with us." Kurenai said.

"I have plenty to hide, it is our job, my identity is one thing I don't want people to know about." Sionnach said.

"We do not care, now remove your mask!" Anko ordered.

"No." Sionnach said.

"Then you leave us no choice." Kurenai said.

"Do you really want to fight me, over some brat?" Sionnach asked.

"He wasn't some brat, he was our brother, and we will have vengeance." Anko said angrily, she then jumped at the original Sionnach but was stopped by one of the other Sionnach's who caught her fist in his hand.

"Easy now, Rua stand down." The original spoke, the one holding Anko turned to him in shock.

"But, Rua-" This Sionnach spoke in a male voice, he sounded old.

"I will deal with them myself, you shall not interfere," he said to the other Sionnach who looked confused, "besides, I think it's time for things to come to light." The others looked surprised but then backed away and disappeared, the one holding Anko let go and walked over to the original and spoke.

"Isn't it a bit early?" He asked.

"No, now would be the perfect time, for them at least. He isn't here so we can fight in peace, besides," he looked at the angered Anko, "it will be amusing." He said.

"Fine, we'll try to hunt the snake down." Sionnach said before he too disappeared.

"So, are you going to surrender?" Kurenai asked.

"No, maybe you will though, then we can end this and you can go back to trying to find your brothers killer. There won't be much to find but I'm sure you might find some sort of closure." Sionnach said, "trust me, it will be better than learning the truth that's something even I'm a bit fuzzy on."

"No, we will avenge him!" Anko snarled.

"Oh, I thought you'd want to save him more but if you want to avenge him…" Sionnach trailed off.

"He's alive?!" Anko and Kurenai shouted in shock.

"Hmm, your Hokage doesn't trust you much, does she?" Sionnach asked suddenly.

"Don't change the subject! Where is our brother?!" Asked and enraged Anko.

"To send an ANBU team on such a simple extraction mission." Sionnach said in mock sadness.

"What are you talking about?!" Kurenai asked.

"Oh, so you didn't know, it seems that your Hokage doesn't trust you enough to do such a simple mission, well a good thing too, you know, now that the three of you are here for your family reunion. Come on out to play little ANBU!" He shouted out to apparently no one.

"What are you blabbering on about?! Where is our brother?!" Anko demanded.

"Hush now. Well if you won't come out, I guess I'll start maiming, let's start with, you!" He said and threw a kunai at a tree, it hit someone and with a yell, an ANBU fell out of a tree. Two more ANBU followed him and landed beside him, they had their hands up in a sign of surrender. "Now come out, yes you in the that tree." He pointed to a random tree and another ninja came down, his mask bore the symbol of root. "Ah, a root ninja, so Danzo sent you. Well I better make sure that he misses your message, I've already taken care of your eagle so all that's left is you." He then threw a kunai at the root nin but it was blocked by another kunai from the other ANBU. He turned to face them and looked at them confused behind his mask, "you know that he works for Danzo, one of the elders in your village? Did you also know Danzo is working with Orochimaru?" At their shocked looks he continued, "oh yes, where else do you think he got the senju cells?" At this one of the ANBU flinched.

"What are you talking about?!" He asked.

"I take it you don't know then, the whole 'create someone with wood release' was a shred project between Orochimaru and Danzo, his whole root operation has been going on strong over the years. Where do you think, the orphans go?" Sionnach asked. "Now right now, this sounds like the ravings of a man you don't know at all but this," he then pulled out a file from nowhere, "this is a request that this root nin was trying to give to Orochimaru, oh look it's Danzo's personal seal!" Sionnach then threw the file to the ANBU. He caught it and then looked at it, it was true. "Now, I'd put that away for later, you know, show your Hokage."

He then turned to the ANBU on the ground, "are you going to stabilise him?" he asked, "or have none of you got any medical skills?" The other ANBU he recognised as Cat began to stabilise him, "well, your medical skills have improved." He commented, she stopped in her tracks and looked at him. He turned to look at Anko's group, who were quiet during the whole exchange. "Well, what was it you wanted to know?" He asked.

"Where is our brother?!" Anko growled.

"Good question, there are plenty of answers to that though, I could say that if you remember him he will never truly leave, but I don't think you'd appreciate that." Sionnach said with mock sympathy.

"Don't mock us!" Anko shouted, "where is he?!"

"Hmm, well, I guess we'll make a little bet, if you manage to get my mask from me I'll tell you about some of your brother's fate, but first, I think that this should stay a family affair." He said in mock seriousness, he then blurred out of existence and suddenly the root ninja was on the ground unconscious, as were the two ANBU, just as Sionnach was about to get Hinata and Shino Anko blocked his hit. "Hmmm, fine then, I guess they can watch some of it too." He said.

He then jumped away from them and stood, Yugao after checking the condition of her companions went to join the others in facing the Sionnach.

"Aw, you always were such a kind person, weren't you?" Sionnach spoke, "always trying to heal everyone, mind you, you never were the best at it, isn't that why you nearly lost your boyfriend? He was in a coma for a while, who's fault was it. You tried to blame Naruto, didn't you?" Yugao was at a loss for words and gasped behind her mask, "oh take the mask off, we all know who it is, what was it he used to call you? Cat-neechan?" She flinched and he smirked, "oh how he begged for you to help him." They all tensed at that, "mind you, he was asking for all of your help, wouldn't stop. He was in so much pain, he begged. It didn't help." His voice at the end was feral and practically dripped glee. They were all shocked and terrified for their brother and friend, "he was disappointed when no one helped."

"W-w-what are you talking about?" Yugao asked in fear.

"Hmmm, oh I guess I got distracted, now aren't you supposed to beat me or something?" Anko then launched herself at him and entered a furious taijutsu combo, Sionnach dodged every strike but was then assaulted from the other side by Yugao with a katana, he continued to dodge every strike, suddenly Hinata came in from behind, he was trapped between the three of them but still he dodged, somehow every strike was dodged, he made it look easy. "Well, this is disappointing" he said, "I thought you would fight harder, you know, for his sake or something." The girls were infuriated and sped up, suddenly he was aware of the bugs trying to get him but each one fell dead at the touch of his skin. "Did you not learn from last time?" he asked the Aburame who fell back. He continued to dodge the strikes, each one somehow missing every time. "Hmmm, oh I get it, you all try to attack me while little miss genjutsu mistress puts me in a genjutsu, clever, but it won't work on me." Just then Kurenai tried to cast a genjutsu but it failed immediately.

"How?" She asked fearfully.

"Now, that is a," he looked her right in the eye, her ruby eyes staring into his own, "trade secret," her heart stopped, he then decided to turn back to the fight he was currently dodging, "I thought the three of you together were at sannin level, stop making me so disappointed." He chastised. Suddenly Kurenai joined in with a kunai trying to help the others, he was now boxed in but he still dodged every strike. He saw the Aburame trying to wake the others but he couldn't for some reason, "good luck with that." He said, "I've poisoned them, they'll be out for a few hours, I think, either that or dead but who cares?" Suddenly a punch from Anko managed to connect with his chest and he went flying back and landed on a tree. "Oh, finally, something interesting happens, now what?" Suddenly Anko went through hand seals and summoned a large snake, "oh, interesting." The snake then lunged but he dodged and punched it in the jaw, lifting it off the ground, it dispelled immediately. Suddenly Yugao was on him with her sword, two shadow clones attacked from the side leaving no room for manoeuvring, he then in an act of flexibility jumped over the two cloned swords and kicked to dispel them, then caught the blade of the sword and twisted it out of Yugao's hand throwing it into a tree where it went into the hilt. He then kicked Yugao away, she landed in pain and tried to get up only to find herself unable to move, there she lay on her back trapped somehow.

The others fought on, Sionnach decided to take Shino out first so he kicked him to the ground where he found that he couldn't move like Yugao. He turned to Hinata and she jabbed at him with a chakra laden hand, he dodged and then grabbed her wrist, then he took her other wrist and let her go. She found that her hands weighed more, so much that she couldn't move them.

"What did you do?!" She asked scared.

"Oh, it's just a seal, don't worry, it'll be able to be taken off but for now you're useless." He then kicked her and she landed like Yugao and Shino, she found that she was unable to move.

"What did you do to them?!" Anko asked.

"Oh, I just made sure they wouldn't get up again, now let's hurry, or do you want to lose your brother for ever." Everyone felt a burst of fear, "oops, I wasn't supposed to say that now was I, maybe if you can take my mask I'll tell you what it meant."

Anko and Kurenai tried to fight harder but soon Kurenai flew to the ground and landed beside the others leaving Anko to fight the Sionnach alone. She went for a punch but he grabbed her wrist and it fell limply by her side, it felt like it weighed a tonne. She still fought, he caught her other hand and it fell like the other, she then tried a kick but he caught that too and it fell to the ground.

She tried to stand but he just laughed, "well, I guess that's the best you've got, I mean your brother was tortured for months on end. Oh, I better not say anything else. I guess I'll tell him that you just don't care about him." Anko struggled against him, he kicked her to the ground and she fell like the others, he then walked over to all of them. "Hmmm, now, should I kill you one by one and force you to watch or torture you by saying how much you failed him?"

They looked at him in fear, he then grabbed Hinata by the hair and lifted her up, "Hmmm, yeah I guess it would be crueller not being able to help him but knowing what he went through." He then brought Hinata over to a tree and hit the back of her head to knock her out, he then lifted Shino and did the same, then he went over to the other three and looked down at them, "to think, he cared about you so much. Oh, it will be so much fun to hear what you think about what I did to him, don't you think?" He then undid the seals and applied more weight seals so that they couldn't move due to the weight, "so, what do you want to know first, how about I tell you how he begged for your help, or how I broke his mind, then sealed away the memories and did it again and again. Oh, how about after when I did it too much and then the seals all broke at once, it drove him insane. How much fun." Sionnach said.

The three of them had tears in their eyes, "you're a monster!" Yugao shouted.

"Well then I guess I won't tell you where he is, you may be able to save him you know, but if you're going to be rude then I won't bother." He said, he watched the desperation in their eyes at that, "fine, fine I'll tell you, but that comes last. So, aske away."

"W-w-who are you?" Kurenai asked.

"That's a strange question, why would you ask a man in a mask who he is, that takes the point away from the mask." He answered, "but, if you must know, I'll give you a guess, I am a special kind of monster that lives inside certain people, now guess." The Sionnach said.

"The kyuubi." Anko said.

"What a good guess." Sionnach said with a grin.

"What did you do to Naruto?" Kurenai asked.

"Well… there's a long answer and a short answer to that, which do you want?" Sionnach asked.

"The short one." Kurenai said, knowing they would never be able to live if they heard the full extent of the kyuubi's torture of their brother.

"Aw, you're no fun. Well, I broke his mind, continuously, then I fixed it, I also undid all the fine work that I did in the past, you should see his body. Well unless you're squeamish, even if you're not squeamish it's not nice, it actually made me throw up for a bit." They were horrified, something that made this monster throw up. "And then I kept him like that, now he must see that every time he looks in a mirror, it drove him mad the first time he saw it."

"What did you do to him to make that happen?" Anko asked, half afraid of his answer.

"Me, nothing, in fact I did the opposite, I took away my help." They looked confused, "I took away his healing, I think that is what you saw. Did you know he was fully conscious? It would have been no fun if he wasn't. So anyway, I did nothing, that was what the villagers did to him. What you let happen." He whispered in a sing-song voice just loud enough for them to hear.

"What are you talking about?" Anko asked angrily.

"Well, the only reason you helped him was because of his mother, I may have shown what would happen if you didn't find that out. You let him suffer. Or at least he thinks you did." They looked horrified.

"Stop hurting him!" Yugao yelled.

"Well I guess that's all the time you have, but since I'm such a nice person, I'll let you see him." The Sionnach then smirked under his mask, "but you won't like it." He said in a sing-song voice.

"We don't care, please just show us him." Kurenai begged.

Then the Sionnach chuckled, "you need only ask," he reached for his mask and removed it, "Kurenai-neechan." He revealed his face, it was an older Naruto staring back at them, but his eyes were red with black sclera instead of white. "What do you think?"

"Naruto! Otouto!" The three of them yelled in shock.

"What, did you think I would give up such a lovely body?" the Sionnach asked sarcastically. "Unfortunately, my… takeover came after the healing was gone so this is just a henge. This is what it actually looks like." Then the henge faded and Naruto's scared face appeared, the three sisters were shocked and horrified, "yeah, I know, the fun thing is he's stuck like this." He then laughed psychotically.

"Why?" Anko asked. "Why are you doing this to him?"

"Hmmm, well mostly for fun." He then looked them in the eye, "so now that you've found me, can you help me, will you help me?" Sionnach spoke his voice becoming that of a child's, then he grinned evilly, "You know he used to fight so hard to stay in control, even if he didn't know it, did you know if you saw it earlier you could have helped him. In a way, it's all your fault, imagine, you've been trying to help stop the problem you created, how does it feel, I'm here because of you."

They were all crying at this point, they looked to the eyes of their brother and felt fear for him, they failed him. "Stop it!" Anko yelled.

"Hmm, maybe I will, now, I think it is time I left, you will tell no one of my identity, if you do his soul will never rest, he shall suffer more than you could imagine. Trust me I will know. Actually scratch that, tell your Hokage, I think it would be best that she knows, but I'd make sure that no one else find out, he may not think it can get worse but I can make him suffer worse. Make sure that no one else finds out, it would be such a shame if that traitorous elder Danzo found out." Sionnach said, "oh and by the way thank you, if you didn't weaken his soul like you had he could have kept control." Sionnach said as he turned to them once again, they looked confused, they were still crying, "oh, you don't know, now this is perfect. Do you remember seeing his spirit?" Sionnach asked.

"What are you talking about?" Yugao asked through tears.

"Did you see a ghost or a mass of chakra, something like that?" Sionnach asked.

"Yes, he gave us a message, he escaped from you, at least some of him did." Kurenai said.

"Oh how wrong you are. What did he tell you?" Sionnach asked.

"He… he told us to live on." Anko said sadly.

Suddenly the Sionnach started laughing, it started slowly, a mad giggle but the built up to a fully insane laugh, "I guess you didn't get the full message, you see young Naruto feared that he alone wouldn't be able to face me so he tried to bring his family in to help, he sent his soul out to ask you to help him, he must have been distracted by something. What were you doing?" Sionnach asked.

"I… we… we were saying goodbye… I… was going to… to k-kill myself." Anko said through sobs, the full impact of what he was saying not reaching her.

"Hahaha, I guess I should thank you, he may have won if he hadn't split off to ask for help, and I would have lost in a battle of wills between the three of you. I guess you're the reason he never gave you all the full message." Anko's eyes widened in shock and fear. "You see, he sent a bit of his chakra off to find you and then open a connection to him, he must have wasted too much chakra saving you to give the full message, the full message was in fact 'help, I need you to help me live on'. Because of your interference, he never got to ask for help." Sionnach finished. "You, didn't help him, you had so many chances but took none of them. I'll be sure to tell him that you 'tried your hardest', I'm sure that will ease your suffering."

He walked over to Hinata her unconscious body lying there, he grabbed her by the hair and lifted her up to eye level, the three kunoichi watched in fear. The monster that used to be their brother pulled out a kunai and turned to them, "why don't I show you some of what happened to him, I can't show it all because we're running out of time and where would I even get a chainsaw from at this time of day." He said in mock anger, "but I'll show you a sliver of your brother's pain." He raised the kunai to the unconscious Hyuuga's face, "now, where to begin." The three of them struggled to stand but couldn't move, they couldn't lose another to the kyuubi's madness.

"Aha, why don't we put a smile on that face." Sionnach said, indicating towards a rather thick scar going from his left ear to his mouth and then curving back up to his right ear.

"No, don't do this!" Kurenai yelled.

As he raised the knife he seemed to freeze up, he dropped the kunai and then shook his head in apparent frustration, he turned back to them and for a moment there was a flash of blue in his eyes. It quickly returned to the colour of blood surrounded by a cloak of darkness, "but it seems my time grows short." He then vanished in a blur of speed.

With him gone, the seals on the three of them disappearing Kurenai ran to Hinata's side and inspected her for damage but her thoughts were elsewhere, along with Yugao's and Anko's. It couldn't be true, was it? Did they truly fail their brother so badly? No! He was alive! He was in there somewhere, they would free him.

(With the Sionnach)

Sionnach arrived back at the cave and held his head in pain, what was going on? Why did he say all those things, that wasn't him, was it? No, it was like someone else had-

 _'-taken over'_ came the voice from inside his head, Sionnach suddenly stiffened before collapsing to the ground. He reappeared in the mindscape, but it was different, it wasn't the forest he usually appeared in or the centre of the seal. He appeared to be in a sewer of some kind, the walls were a sickly yellow and the water beneath him was about an inch deep. There was no one other than him.

"Where am I?" He asked himself, he was then very shocked when himself replied.

 _"We are in my mindscape."_ His mind-body answered for him.

"What? What's going on?" He asked.

 _"Hold on, I'll make this easier on myself."_ He replied to himself, suddenly he felt like something was bursting out of him, he fell to the ground on his hands and knees, he gasped and then stood up to face… himself? It was him in his mask and cloak, looking down on him.

"Who are you?" He asked.

 _"That's obvious, I'm Sionnach."_ The masked figure seemed to smirk, _"the real question is, who are you?"_

"I'm the Sionnach!" Sionnach answered as he stood to his feet.

 _"No, you are not. You are Naruto Uzumaki."_ The other Sionnach spoke.

"They are the same!" Naruto said.

 _"Then why do you claim Naruto is dead?"_ Sionnach asked.

"Because it's easier for him to be dead for those who cares for him." Naruto replied truthfully.

 _"Of course, that is your answer. It doesn't matter, I am you and you are me, I guess you could say I am the yin to your yang. I am the dark side of you, I am Sionnach, you are Naruto."_ Sionnach said, he then removed his mask to show Naruto his scared face. His eyes were red with black sclera. " _I see myself with my scars, a reminder, you, do not."_ He signalled to the water and Naruto looked at his reflection, his skin was what he imagined his face would be without the scars.

"So, it was you, you said all of those lies." Naruto said.

 _"They were not lies, merely half-truths, I said I reside within some people they assumed Jinchuuriki and I did nothing to correct them. I said you were suffering, they didn't need to know it was mostly emotional. And so on, and so on."_ Sionnach said.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

 _"They hurt us, they deserved it, they abandoned us."_ Sionnach said angrily.

"They love us, we love them."

 _"No, they hate us and we hate them!"_ Sionnach said aggressively.

"We are one in the same, I know that you love them, that is why it hurts so much."

 _"You lie!"_

"Then why do they still live?"

 _"Because… it will hurt them more thinking they can 'save us'."_

"No, it's because we never wanted to hurt them, we love them too much."

 _"No!"_ Sionnach lunged at him.

(With Zoe)

Zoe had been trying to figure out more about her lady's quest but only the Olympians knew anything about it. She couldn't ask them if it was such a big secret, she had noticed that nearly all the Olympians had visited over the years since her lady's change. They all went to lady Artemis' tent and talked with her for a few hours, the only ones who had not come were Dionysus, Demeter and Ares. Some had been only once, like Hades, his visit had caused the hunters to be very fearful but Artemis seemed to suspect he would came, she had come out to greet him.

The other hunters had been getting curious and continued to come to her for answers, she had said that she knew nothing about what was happening. She had also continued to have dreams of hunting the fox, she somehow felt that the two things were connected. Some of the dreams were different sometimes the fox would fight back but she would always shoot it in the end, sometimes there were other hunters with her sometimes she was alone. Her lady was never there though. She had told none of the others of her dreams, she had no idea what the dreams meant but they didn't seem to tell her anything.

Tonight, she entered the realm of the dreams and once again she was in a forest, she saw a flash of silver and followed it, the fox was running again. She seemed to be alone this time, none of the other hunters were with her. The fox finally came to a clearing, there was a figure she recognised as her lady in the centre of the clearing, facing away from them. The fox ran at her and suddenly jumped. It attacked her lady, biting into her unprotected neck, releasing godly ichor. Zoe gasped and fired her arrow, it hit the fox and it fell. Then the dream ended.

Zoe woke up gasping, she was sweating. She looked around to see that she was in her tent, she was fine. This fox must be a bad omen, it will hurt her lady, she must make sure that doesn't happen. She will kill the fox before it could reach her lady, maybe it was a sign that a beast would attack, but a fox. There was only one fox she could think of, the teumessian fox, maybe that was the quest lady Artemis was to go on, to catch the uncatchable fox. So, the fox would hurt lady Artemis? Was she to make sure that the fox was slain? Only time would tell, for now though she would stay quiet, when her lady went on her quest she would help where she could, she would slay the fox.


	20. Chapter 20

(Mindscape)

Naruto blocked Sionnach's strike and kicked off him pushing both back from each other, they both ran at each other, they both pulled off their bows and fired an arrow, each hitting the others deflecting them off each other. They then started doing synchronised hand seals before each fired a blast of wind at the other, they met in the centre of the sewer and a shockwave came off it. The two of them were pushed back by the force of the two attacks hitting, both got up and stood, they both put out an arm and a ball of chakra began to form in each of their hands. In Naruto's it was coloured pure white, it seemed to give off light, in Sionnach's it was a black colour and seemed to suck all the light out of the room. The two of them stood there for a minute, the room dyed a pale white on Naruto's side, and coloured in shadow on the Sionnach's. Then they charged at each other, they thrust their hands out in front of them and the two attacks connected, they each fought for dominance but neither seemed to be winning. Finally, the white ball of chakra looked like it was winning, it seemed to push into the black ball but the black ball somehow engulfed it, then it looked like the two chakras were mixing, at first it started out like a confused symbol for yin and yang, but then the two colours bled into each other. They mixed to become a grey colour which then transformed into a small orb, in the end it looked like a small moon made from the two contradicting chakras. It held in the centre of the two of them both watching amazed, they had just created a contradiction, since each of them represented the light and dark of his mind, they had somehow combined the two opposites to create this.

Then the ball exploded, it engulfed the two of them in a dome of silver chakra, they stared at each other and realised the chakra wasn't hurting them. Neither was harmed in the chakra explosion, it slowly dissipated into nothingness.

"What was that?" Naruto asked, panting, "why was my rasengan white, and why was yours black?"

 _"I don't know, maybe it is because in here I represent the darkness and you are the light, but how did they mix?"_ Sionnach asked, he was also panting.

"Because we are the same." Naruto realised, "no matter how much neither particularly like it, you are me and I am you."

 _"But that doesn't matter, you are weak! You trust them!"_ Sionnach said.

"I know, I do trust them, they earned that when they helped us. We do love them, without them we would have either died or gone insane a long time ago." Naruto said.

 _"But… they abandoned us, why should we trust them now?"_ Sionnach asked sadly.

"That's not the truth." Naruto said, "we do love them, it hurt when they gave up on us, but the truth is we are ashamed."

 _"Why would we feel shame?!"_

"Because we abandoned them, we gave them up for the sake of the world, we are guilty it's not them who betrayed us. We betrayed them."

Tears went down both their cheeks, _"we just… how could we just… we didn't have a choice."_

"That doesn't mean we're right, and what the hell is wrong with you! Why did you do that to them, you just made things so much more complicated. Do you have any idea how much it will hurt them?"

 _"I… all the memories are blurring together, it's like what happened back then, they're mixing in with that night. What if they were lying? Was it them?"_ Sionnach brought his hands to his face and covered his face. _"Why? Why did they hurt us?"_

"They didn't, they are our sisters. We trust them, we love them, they didn't hurt us. Even before they knew who we were, the never hurt us." Naruto then went over to his dark half and put a hand on his shoulder.

 _"But how? How can we trust them?"_

"Because they've earned our trust. We will have lost theirs, and that stunt you pulled won't help anyone."

 _"I… understand, I'll try to keep in control but… it's hard, Kaa-chan has tried to help but, it's up to us in the end."_

"What are you talking about?"

 _"Keeping sane, did you not know? I guess it makes sense, I only found out because I've been trying to stop it. We went insane, our entire mind shattered, Kaa-chan repaired the major damage but we had to fix the rest. I guess it was best that our current conscious mind didn't know."_

"What? We went insane? How do you fix a mindscape?"

 _"We're a Jinchuuriki, our minds are more… mouldable? No, flexible to the rules. Since we can go into our minds we can repair it easier. It is insanely difficult but we've managed. It's almost fixed, that's why I managed to take over for a bit."_

"I am so confused."

 _"Trust me, it's much easier being confused than actually understanding it, ignorance is bliss after all."_

"Fine, you know for my dark half you're not that bad a guy."

 _"Well, it's not like I'm going to be evil. I'm you."_

"I should probably get going, the others may have found Orochimaru."

 _"Fine."_

(Konoha)

It had been a few days since team Kurenai had been sent to get information from the spy, they should be back any time today. Tsunade was slightly apprehensive, Sasori had said this informant had information on the Sionnach who she suspected to be the kyuubi. She heard a knock on her door and replied with a call of 'enter'. Team Kurenai entered the room, along with the ANBU team she sent with them, they must have either had to reveal themselves or had been discovered. Between them was a person in a wooden cage made from Yamato's mokton.

"I take it the mission was a success then?" Tsunade asked motioning towards the prisoner in the cage.

"No, Tsunade-sama, the mission was a failure." Kurenai said sadly.

"Then who is he?" Tsunade asked in confusion.

"A root ninja ma'am, he was discovered trying to give this to Orochimaru." Kurenai handed the scroll the Sionnach had given Yamato to her, she read it and her eyes narrowed.

"ANBU!" She shouted, three ANBU appeared in front of her. "Inform the council we have a meeting in exactly one hour."

"Tsunade-sama, this mission, the Sionnach himself showed up." Yugao said, Tsunade looked really surprised at this, the team then explained the mission up until they were all knocked unconscious, Anko, Kurenai and Yugao became silent, "Tsunade-sama, what happened next is… for you to hear only." Yugao finished.

Tsunade quickly dismissed the others leaving only the four of them, she then put up all the privacy seals in her office to hear this next information.

"Tsunade-sama, it's as we feared, the kyuubi has taken over." Kurenai said, she then explained exactly what happened after the others were unconscious. Tsunade became horrified at the thought of something like that happening to Naruto, he didn't deserve any of this. "Tsunade-sama, what do we do now?" She finished.

"For now, we can do nothing," ignoring their shocked expressions Tsunade continued, "there is nothing we can do, the three of you together could not handle him, his skills are too high for you now, for now, as much as I hate to say it, we must wait."

"But we can't just leave him like that!" Anko yelled.

"I'm sorry, I really am, but we can't hunt him down, for now it's just the three of us who know, he threatened Naruto if we told others, we can't put him in the bingo book without reason and it is a bad idea for the three of you or even I to go hunting for him."

"But… we can't just do nothing! He needs us." Kurenai yelled out.

"I'm sorry, there's just nothing we can do." Tsunade said sadly.

(With Naruto)

Naruto woke up in his home, he could hear the others had returned, he got up and left his room to see if they had found anything. He went into the main room to find all the others were there waiting for him, when they turned to look at him they gasped.

"S-s-Sionnach-kun, your mask." Fu stuttered.

"I know," Naruto said, he had taken his mask off and his hood was down, "I decided to take it off, I had an… epiphany, and could you call me Naruto again, Nee-chan?" He asked, they all were still staring at him motionlessly and he was disheartened, "I'll put it back on if you want then." He said dejectedly, "I guess no one wants to see my face." He muttered sadly to himself but they all heard him.

"No," Fu said, "it's not that," he turned back around and she came over to him and gave him a hug, "it's just… I missed you, the real you." She said, "when you wore the mask it was like you were a different person, but, now your you. We don't care how you look, you're still our little brother." Fu finished, Naruto brought her closer to him and held onto her like a lifeline.

"Thanks, Nee-chan." He whispered, traces of tears creeping down his face. They broke the hug up and then sat down in their seats.

"We found his base, but he was already heading off, we did manage to place one of the tracking tags on Kabuto as they escaped. Since he's always by his master's side when they stop moving we will attack that base." Roshi said with a grin.

"Good," Suddenly there was a light emitting from Roshi's pocket.

"Speak of the devil," Roshi said, "they are, here" He removed a map from his pocket which had a location circled in glowing script, "should we head there straight away."

"Yes."

(Konoha a week later)

"Tsunade-sama!" Shouted Shizune as she ran down a corridor to get to her teacher, she soon arrived at her office and entered, Tsunade hastily put her sake away and looked up at Shizune. "Tsunade-sama, it's the Sionnach. He's killed Orochimaru." Shizune said.

"What?" Tsunade replied, "is there proof?"

"Better yet, there's a body, it seemed Orochimaru truly was a snake. He used some form of jutsu to turn himself into a weird giant snake thing, the Sionnach gave us all of the bodies. He also took the reward." Shizune said and showed pictures of some Orochimaru skins and a giant white snake that looked like her old teammate.

Soon word got around that Orochimaru was dead, there were rumours that it was the Sionnach who killed him but no one confirmed it. Konoha had become quiet after the death of the elder Danzo, Tsunade had him executed for treason and killed him herself. After his death, it was found out that he had cells of the first hokage and sharingans on his arm to allow him to use certain techniques of the sharingan. Sauske, when he found out, was mortified, he had the eyes destroyed so that they could never be used in such a way again. All Danzo's root ninja were given the choice of surrender or die, most surrendered but there were a few 'loyal' ninja who died not long after their master.

The rookies had all gathered to hear Hinata and Shino's story of meeting the Sionnach, they had waited until all the teams were back in the village from their missions so they could tell them all together. They had all gathered in training ground seven, they were now all there waiting for Kiba, he arrived and the two began telling their story. When they were done, everyone was shocked, this was a lead on Naruto and from the sounds of it he was still alive.

"What happened when you were knocked unconscious." Ino asked.

"We don't know, Kurenai sensei and the others won't tell us, apparently, it has to do with multiple village secrets." Hinata said quietly.

"But we need to know!" Tenten argued.

"They won't tell us, and no one else knows, they made sure of that." Shino said.

"Well it's a lead anyway." Sauske said.

"Oh yeah, because we'd be able to take out someone who killed Orochimaru, he's S-class no doubt, some of us aren't even in the bingo books." Sakura said, irritably.

"Then we train." Kiba said.

(With the Jinchuuriki)

The Jinchuuriki were finally ready to implement their plan, or at least part of it, today was the day that Roshi, Yagura, Utakata and Hana would be leaving to be caught. Fu had decided to wait for a while and stay with her brother, at least until the others were caught, they didn't want him to be lonely. They were both there to see the other four off.

"Goodbye." Naruto said, "I hope this all works out." He then hugged the four of them individually while Fu did the same.

"We'll talk in the mindscape, Otouto." Hana said.

"And even after we're caught we'll be with you watching. So, don't do anything stupid." Yagura warned.

"And stay safe." Roshi said.

"And for the love of all things holy, if you touch my stuff…" Utakata said with a grin on his face.

"Ok, ok, you lot are like mother hens. Just, you know, be careful." Fu said.

"Yeah…" Yagura said.

They all walked to a cliff face where they had placed a reverse summoning seal, something both Roshi and Naruto had developed. It would take them to the safe house in the land of waves, from there they would have a fight on the ocean and bait the Akatsuki.

They all turned away from Naruto and Fu and were about to walk onto the seal but were stopped, "wait!" Naruto said, they turned and he grabbed all of them in a large group hug, "I love you," he whispered, Fu then joined the hug and said the same. Finally, they all turned away and looked at the seal, they channelled some chakra into it and were gone in a puff of smoke.

Fu turned to Naruto and smirked, "now it's just the two of us, little bro." She said.

"Yeah…" Naruto said.

"They'll be fine, don't worry." Fu said.

"I know, doesn't help, but at least now all of you have made it through the process, we'll all be fine." Naruto said, it was true, over the last few weeks all the Jinchuuriki had made it through the process up to Fu, hers was last night. B still had a few days left but his would be soon. It turned out all the Jinchuuriki's processes were different, or at least the 'egg' they made was. Yagura's was made of her coral; Roshi was bathed in lava; Hana was covered in a layer of steam so thick it felt almost solid to touch; Utakata had a bubble full of slime, one of the most disgusting; and Fu had a cocoon like a butterfly's wrap around her. They had a made a bet on what B's would be, some of them thought it would be ink, while others thought it would be octopi tentacles. Naruto believed it would be the former.

"Well, what do we do now?" Fu asked.

"I don't know, let's head back inside though." Naruto replied.

The returned to their house which seemed an awful lot quieter now that it was just the two of them. They decided that now would be the time to go into the mindscapes and see if Yugito or B were around, Yugito was so they told her that now that the others were gone. She understood their problem, B had taken on a genin team a few years ago, and had spent much more time with them than with the others. Yugito didn't mind, in fact the team were nice to her and treated her well but she missed hanging with B and since they were training so much they didn't get much of a chance to. She made a few other friends during that time as she and B had both proven to the villagers not to be demons and they started praising them. Right now, though she was in the same predicament they were, no one was there to help with the boredom.

"Well," Naruto said, "we've never actually seen your sage mode, I don't think you've seen ours, have you?"

"I've seen yours Naruto-kun, I remember you came into the mindscape trapped in your fox body, but I haven't seen Fu's and neither of you have seen mine." Yugito replied.

"You've only seen my full transformation, you haven't seen all of it anyway." Naruto said.

"Fine, let's see it then." Yugito said.

Naruto was then covered in smoke and emerged from the smoke as a silver kitsune, he now had seven tails and was nearing his eighth, he was about a bijuus head smaller than his mother now. His sisters each looked surprised at this as he hadn't shown it off to anyone before and had even not told his summons how powerful he now was. He quickly transformed into his one tailed form and jumped into Yugito's arms, she petted him happily for a few minutes before setting him down and he grew up to the size of an Inuzuka's dog with two tails. He sat down and waited patiently for his sisters to reveal their sage modes, Fu went first and transformed into her sage mode, there was no difference other than another pair of wings flapping behind her, like a dragonfly.

Yugito went next, she closed her eyes and when she opened them they were silted like cats, there were no major changes other than that, that they could see anyway. She then unsheathed a pair of claws from her fingers, they were about an inch long and deadly sharp, then her tail wrapped around and she smirked. She then went onto all fours and her legs bent back like a cat allowing her to walk around naturally like that. Her tail was the same colour as her hair and swished around aimlessly behind her. Naruto then transformed into his hanyou mode and stood up next to her, Yugito was surprised at the similarities these modes had and stood up on two legs again.

"That's impressive Naruto-kun, how do you transform into a fox like that." Naruto explained it and she was amazed, "maybe, since our sage modes are so similar, I could learn to do something like that." She said wistfully.

"Maybe, why don't you ask the fox clan leader, she may teach you how to do it." Naruto replied.

"Hmm, I may be able to do that, don't I have permission to summon them?" Yugito asked.

"Yeah, I'll ok it with Shinrin." Naruto said.

"Thanks." Yugito said, Naruto then went to the fox's home to talk with Shinrin.

"You know, this is why we originally signed the multiple contracts, I think B started learning from your cat sage mode before learning the bull sage mode. I'm sure they'll be fine with it." Fu said.

"Yeah, we'll just have to wait anyway." Yugito said.

They waited for a few minutes before Naruto re-appeared in the mindscape, "she's fine with it, so long as you are respectful and I take care of Kokatsu for the next few days." Naruto said.

"Thank you." Yugito said and gave him a hug.

"She said she would reverse summon you in a few minutes, so bye." Naruto finished, suddenly Yugito puffed into smoke.

(A week later)

News spread around the elemental nations of a large-scale fight that happened near the land of hot water. There were various eye-witness accounts of seeing four Jinchuuriki fighting, every village had heard of this and had sent many ninjas to search them out. When they got to the area it was completely decimated, there were pools of lava still solidifying and large holes filled with water, the land was half flooded and half burned to the ground. This proved at least two of the Jinchuuriki who were there and made it obvious who the other two were, Yagura, Roshi, Hana and Utakata had returned. They each split up from that point, Yagura went to a lake where Isobu told her he had made his home before he was sealed. Roshi decided to wander around like he had before, Hana decided to do the same but Kukuo told her to go into the forest's that were the home of the bijuu before being sealed. Utakata decided to wander but came across a young girl who, after saving him, he decided to guard as her clan created a very destructive jutsu and many wanted to steal it.

Yugito had also managed to learn the fox sage mode but, because she completed cat sage mode already she just transformed into a cat, her fur was blonde and unfortunately this was all she was able to do, she did enjoy being a cat though and once she found out how good being pet felt stayed like that when she was in the mindscape, the other Jinchuuriki all tried to master this part of sage mode as well and Shinrin was happy that she didn't have to look after her various children and Naruto learned exactly why foxes are considered crafty and sly when he met some of Kokatsu's brothers and sisters. Kokatsu had three brothers and three sisters, she was considered the strongest of the litter and her little sister Kaya was the runt. Their mother loved them all the same but even she needed her head cleared occasionally, Naruto and Fu had been taking care of all of them and they were all just as hyper as Kokatsu. Naruto swore to never take care of fox kits ever again after learning how loud they could be, they also pranked Fu a lot, they couldn't prank Naruto as he had quickly become a master of pranks. They learned after their fifth plan backfired not to prank him as he was worse than them, he did enjoy the company to distract them from their worry for the rest of their family.

Fu had left to see if she could learn fox sage mode but was having a lot of trouble with it, both her and Utakata had the most trouble learning sage mode. Yagura had a bit of trouble at the star but eventually managed to learn it and transform into either a turtle, she eventually managed to turn to a tortoise too. Roshi had managed to transform into an ape and could become a smaller monkey. Hana could turn into a horse but hadn't got much of a chance to see if she could try dolphin, she felt that she could but didn't have many bodies of water to try in. B had also managed to become a bull after some training but didn't try octopus yet, he felt like it would fail if he attempted it for some reason.

They figured that it was the type of animal that they were attuned to due to their bijuu, Naruto was naturally attuned to foxes so it came easily whilst Yugito was attuned to cats. They guessed that since Fu was attuned to beetles and other invertebrates and Utakata was attuned to slugs, that it was too big a leap from the original animal that this sage mode was made for. It could handle other mammals and had even managed to get Yagura's reptilian nature but bugs and slugs was just impossible to do for them. It wasn't like they missed out on anything as, unlike with Naruto, this sage mode was mostly useless to them. They couldn't do much in their animal forms, sure it was fun but they couldn't use many of their jutsu because they couldn't use hand signs. They couldn't even grow tails like Naruto could for some reason, they mostly just did it for fun, they also found out that they couldn't be sensed when in their animal forms as Yugito learned when she jumped right into the Raikage's arms and he didn't realise it was her.

Unfortunately, it was time for Yugito to be sealed, she was currently fighting against Hidan and Kakuza, and as much as she wanted to destroy them she took it easy on them to let them win. She allowed Hidan to take some of her blood for him to do his jutsu, she then fell to it and was knocked unconscious. She was taken to the Akatsuki's base and had Matatabi extracted, her body fell into the state of fake death and her soul entered the statue. She opened the gate and once again was greeted with the sight of the shared mindscape; her family was there waiting for her and she was happy with where she was.

"So, how long until I can get my body back?" She asked.

 **"A couple of weeks at most, but we should wait until Yagura is sealed"** Isobu said.

"That's fine." Yugito sounded saddened at that.

Yagura looked at her sister sadly but came up with an idea, "hey, Isobu," she said to get the bijuu's attention, "how about you take over my body for a bit?" Yagura asked shocking nearly everyone, "it's not like anyone is going to be visiting us, you haven't been out in ages and we are in a relatively isolated spot. This way Yugito doesn't have to be alone."

"You'd do that for me?" Yugito asked.

"Of course, I'll be with you soon, at least this way I won't be bored, there isn't much in that lake." Yagura said, "everyone wins."

 **"That seems fair, thank you."** Isobu said.

They found out that Obito had put her body in the Kamui world and had put a stasis on it, they didn't know why he would do that but it meant that she wouldn't get her body back for a while.

Yagura and Yugito stayed in the mindscape like that until Isobu informed them that there was a team from Konoha trying to seal them. They failed thanks to the intervention of a young child who was working with an associate of Orochimaru, she apparently believed that this child could control Isobu.

 **"Oh, I remember,"** Isobu said, **"I think this child is of that family. They were a family of humans who were nice to me when I first came here, I gave them some of my chakra so that we could communicate easier. One of these fools has assumed that this child can control me because of that."**

"So, do you want some help?" Naruto asked.

 **"No, we'll be fine, I'll just go talk to the kid."** Isobu said, he then headed in the direction of the young child he was referring to. He was about to speak with him when suddenly a figure Naruto recognised as Sauske used a large fire jutsu to try to take out the Sanbi. **"Fine,"** Isobu muttered, **"I can see I'm not wanted here."** The bijuu said as he went under the water and disappeared from the ninja of Konoha's sight. Isobu was swimming merrily when a chakra signature appeared from the Akatsuki.

 **"Yagura, it is time."** He said and swam to the surface, one of the figures was Obito and the other they recognised as Deidora, they fought for a bit but then Isobu threw the fight and allowed them to win. They brought Isobu to the sealing chamber and he was quickly sealed leaving Yagura's body sitting there. The Akatsuki took her body and put it with Yugitos, and the bijuu finally deemed the seal permanently opened, they began slowly breaking the Shinju down from the inside with blasts of chakra forcing it to weaken.

The next to go was Roshi who found himself facing Kisame, he, like the others, threw his fight and Kisame won. Son Goku was extracted and he found himself a permanent resident of the mindscape too. Hana fell in battle too against Konan, she too was sealed and they noticed that the Shinju's mind was beginning to break down a bit from all their attacks.

Naruto's plan to fight the other Jinchuuriki as Sionnach didn't come to fruition because the Akatsuki were moving too quickly so he decided to take it out by killing some of their members. He decided to go after the immortal duo of Kakuzu and Hidan first and found them at a bounty station, they were fighting team ten and two chunin from Konoha. He saw that the Konoha ninja were losing and that Asuma was about to fall to Hidan's cursed jutsu, Hidan raised his pike to impale his own heart and was just about to kill Asuma. Team ten couldn't stop him so Naruto decided to step in, he in his Sionnach outfit stepped up and kicked Hidan out of his circle.

The attack was unexpected and Hidan flew out of the ring and hit a wall breaking his arm in the process. Asuma fell to the ground clutching his ribs from the pain, Naruto forgot they were connected and realised how much power he put into that kick.

"Are any of you medics?" Sionnach asked team eight, they looked at him in shock figuring he was now their enemy too. "Fine, I guess you don't want to stop your sensei from bleeding out." He said dismissively and the team realised that he had saved their sensei.

Ino quickly ran over and began to heal Asuma who was beginning to lose consciousness, while Kakuzu turned to face the Sionnach.

"The Sionnach, you have quite a large bounty on your head." He said with a chuckle.

"I know, so do you Kakuzu." Naruto replied.

"But you are no-where near my level, I fought the first Hokage back in my youth and I-" Kakuzu began.

"-lost?" Naruto replied, "lost so much that your village abandoned you?" Naruto taunted.

Kakuzu got angry, "you do not know of what you speak!" He yelled.

"Really, because I'm pretty sure that is why you're here, doesn't that make you a failure?" Naruto continued.

"You shall die!" Kakuzu yelled and then removed some of the masks from his back, they contorted to make shapes which then flew off and became animals which seemed to have a will of their own. "Now, you shall face me in all my-" Kakuzu began but was stopped at the sight of Sionnach in front of him with his arm buried in his chest.

"I think this is the part where you die." He whispered into Kakuzu's ear, all four of the animals exploded and his eyes widened before dulling. Naruto dropped him to the ground and his corpse landed with a thud. He turned around and saw his partner standing behind him, she pointed towards Hidan who was slowly emerging from the wall.

"What the hell, Kakuzu!" He yelled when he saw his partner's corpse. He suddenly found his head detached from his body which was now in shreds. Sionnach lifted Hidans head and threw it in the air, he looked at it in amusement.

"I wonder how long you can stay like this for, no sacrifices to Jashin, how long, Hmmm?" Naruto asked the head, the head then started sprouting profanities but Naruto shut him up by grabbing his forehead protector and stuffing it in the corpses mouth, effectively gaging him. "What do you think we should do with this Rua-chan?" He asked.

"I don't know Rua-kun, maybe we could send it back to the village for a bounty, but then again, when does one get the chance to play football these days?" Fu replied.

"Well, first things first, we'll get the bounty for Kakuzu then we'll figure out what to do," they began to walk away, Naruto carrying Kakuzu's corpse and Fu throwing Hidans head up and down, much to his dismay.

"Wait!" Shikamaru yelled to them.

They turned around and looked back at team ten, "what is it?" Naruto asked.

"We have to bring you in for questioning." Shikamaru said.

"You think you can take me in?" Naruto asked.

"Shadow possession jutsu success." Shikamaru said with a smirk. "Now come with us quietly."

"Hmmm," Naruto said, his eyes going red, "how about, you let us go right now our your pretty little teammate doesn't get her throat slit." Naruto said, Ino shrieked as a clone of Sionnach came up behind her and held a kunai to her throat.

"Ino!" Choji yelled, "you bastard! Let her go!"

"Well, isn't this quite the predicament?" Naruto said, "now cancel the jutsu." Shikamaru reluctantly cancelled his jutsu and Naruto grabbed Ino away from his clone, kunai going back to her throat.

"I've stopped the jutsu no let her go!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Hmmm, how about no, I think I'm going to keep her." Naruto said.

"W-w-what?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well, think of it as compensation." Naruto said, "I'll free her when I'm long gone from here, or will I? Well, anyway, you stay here, if you follow, what will I do?" Naruto stopped in thought, in his eyes electric blue fought blood red for dominance.

"If you think I'll-" Ino began but Naruto put a hand over her mouth and silenced her. His red eyes staring down at her.

"Now be quiet, there are fates in this world much worse than death." Naruto whispered.

They left the clearing with a clone carrying Kakuzu's body, Naruto carrying a struggling Ino and Fu looking quite confused with Hidans head.

"What are we going to do with her?!" Fu practically yelled at Naruto.

"I don't know, I just wanted to kill those Akatsuki, but no, these idiots have to try and capture me." Naruto said.

"That doesn't mean we take one of them!" Fu yelled.

"I know, I just… never mind. What are we going to do with her?" Naruto asked, his eyes bleeding back to their original cobalt colouring.

"We could kill her." Fu said, Ino looked quite terrified at this prospect.

"No, Konoha would have a legitimate reason to hunt us down then." Naruto replied, Ino became slightly more relieved.

"Well, we could seal her chakra and send her on her way." Fu tried again.

"No, there are bandits about, she would be easy prey then, they'd do things far worse than killing her." Naruto sighed.

"Is that so bad, she's not our problem then." Fu said, Ino looked absolutely horrified and started making muffled negative noises., "see, she agrees." Ino began grunting even louder in denial.

"Stop teasing her." Naruto said. "We need to do something, I don't want to keep her as hostage, but it may be the only option right now."

"Well, we can't take her home." Fu berated slightly.

"Fine, do you know what, I'll put a timed chakra seal on her, her chakra will be sealed for an hour, that's more than enough time for us to get out of here." Naruto said.

"Why didn't you say you could do that?" Fu asked annoyed.

"Well… It'll explode… at the slightest amount of chakra. Basically, she'll have to consciously not use chakra for about an hour, that's something not many people can do." Naruto lied, it wouldn't explode but that would stop her from trying, at Ino's nervous look he was proven right.

"We'll do that, if she explodes it's her own fault." Fu said and Naruto got to work making the seal, he did it on a piece of paper and then attached it to her forehead.

"Now, don't try to take it off, tell any of your friends not to use any chakra around you, if you find them and you know, don't use chakra." Naruto said as he activated the seal. Very quickly his eyes flashed red and he spoke again. "By the way, Naruto says hi, bye now." Naruto left before she could say anything.

They made it far enough away and made it to one of their safe houses. They then made their way home and checked up on the others in the mindscape, they were doing fine. Another of the Akatsuki was killed according to Saiken, Deidora and Sauske fought and Deidora, in a last-ditch effort blew himself up, Sauske and the others were searching for Itachi as he had been seen and they had been given a mission to kill him and get information on Akatsuki.

Sauske would soon find Itachi and they knew Zetsu would be watching, so they would find out how it went from it. Obito was planning on kidnapping Sauske after the fight to try and tell him the truth about the Uchiha massacre, Naruto felt like giving Obito one big middle finger by getting to him first. Obito foolishly chose to tell Zetsu of his plan and now they knew how to get an eternal mangekyo, and how to stop someone getting one. They decided that no one should get an eternal mangekyo sharingan and that the regular one was bad enough. They would steal either Itachi's or Sauske's eyes and destroy them so the other would be unable to attain the eternal mangekyo, also if Sauske won they would make sure Obito didn't get his hands on him.

Naruto and Fu arrived just in time and hid from anyone without sage mode or Kurama's emotional sensing. It seemed Kisame and Obito were distracting the people who came to help Sauske fight, Zetsu was watching. They sat and watched how powerful the two of them were, Itachi outmatched Sauske so much but he seemed to be sick and in the end died of an illness of some sort. Sauske collapsed in exhaustion and they quickly took the both away from there before either Zetsu or Obito could. All Zetsu saw was a black blur and they were gone, he didn't seem so happy about it. They quickly brought both bodies back to a safe house and quickly extracted Itachi's eyes, they put them in the container of liquid he had and then closed his eyes. As for Sauske they simply kept him unconscious until they brought him to Konoha, they left him outside Konoha's gates and made sure no one took him until the ANBU patrol came.

They left and headed home.

(Later that day)

After Naruto finally made it to bed he awoke to a familiar sewer, Sionnach was looking at him. As Naruto sat up he glared at his alter ego.

"You're a real dick you know." Naruto said, "that was unnecessary, we could have easily gotten away from team ten, why did you take Ino hostage, and why did you tell her I missed her?"

 _"Well, you do miss her, you miss all of them, and it was just a spur of the moment thing."_ Sionnach said sheepishly.

Naruto groaned in annoyance, "and why did you keep up the act that we are kaa-chan?"

 _"It makes it more believable, and me being sadistic… well as you said I am a dick, and I am just committing to the role."_ The scarred son of the moon said.

"Fine, but there has to be limits, don't be overly cruel like you were with our sisters." Naruto said before leaving the mindscape.

(A week later)

Now all the Jinchuuriki had been captured except Fu, B and Naruto, they decided that now was the time for the Sionnach and Fu to fight. The Akatsuki would show up and Sionnach would kill them before fleeing, leaving Fu unconscious ready for Zetsu.

They got their fight ready and were in the middle of Iron country, this way they would be noticed easier and the Akatsuki would attack. They began fighting, making sure to give off as much chakra as possible to alert Zetsu, they found out that apparently Pein himself was coming, they would kill him and Konan and then Sionnach would flee. They knew all about his moves and would work together to defeat him. They were fighting when they heard a call of 'Shinra Tensei'. They both went flying back and hit the edge of a cliff.

"You, Nanabi, you shall come with us." Pein said, "and you Sionnach, you shall join us."

"You want to team up to kill him?" Naruto asked Fu.

"If we get back to our own fight after." Fu replied and they both rushed at Pein.

(Artemis camp)

Zoe had been getting more and more nervous of the nature of the quest that her lady would go on, no matter what she learned nothing more from her dreams. The dreams continued the same as they had and she decided to tell the other hunters to watch out for foxes, she told them of her dream. They agreed that the quest must involve the creature in some way, but like her only knew of one fox of legend. One of the younger hunters suggested that maybe a new monster would emerge. Another plausible theory but they had no more information. She had yet to inform her lady of the dreams as she was unsure whether she would heed her advice, whenever she tried to approach the subject her lady would tell her nothing.

Maybe it would be up to her to take care of the of some part of the quest, was that why she alone got these dreams? Only time would tell. She overheard her lady saying one date, October tenth, that wasn't long away. She would be sure to be ready on that day and would make sure that when her lady left she would follow. It was her job as lieutenant to protect lady Artemis after all.


	21. Chapter 21

(With Naruto and Fu)

Naruto lunged at Pein and removed a sword from the depths of his cloak, it was the one his sister had gifted him. This was the first time he would use it in battle, he had used other swords before and had made sure to take care of this sword but he had never used it in a fight before. He unsheathed it and it glinted in the moonlight, it blended in with the snow and made it hard to see the blade. The sword's blade was silver, the same colour as his fur in fox form, he didn't know how his sister had got it but it fit him perfectly. It was a katana and was about ninety centimetres long, there was no tsuba and the handle was wrapped in a black cloth. Naruto had inscribed many tiny seals all over the sword to keep it in perfect conditions, it was, at this point, virtually indestructible after the amount of strengthening seals on it.

Naruto rushed at the closest path of Pein, which he recognised as the human path and quickly swung at it, he decapitated it in one move. The other Pein's couldn't react in time, they all jumped back when they saw the speed he could go at and were more prepared for the Sionnach when he rushed at them again and attacked the Deva path. He used Shinra Tensei to blast him away and he went flying back, the path was then destroyed be a flying Fu, who tore through his defences while his paths concentrated on the Sionnach. Pein left the bodies to be revived by the Naraka path while he sent the Asura path to take on the Sionnach while the Animal path summoned a bird for the others to fly on. The Naruka path revived the Deva and Human paths while the Jinchuuriki were distracted. The Deva path used a Shinra Tensai to blast Fu from attacking the bird and then flew after her. The bird along with the Animal and Human paths quickly following her on the bird.

Naruto sliced at the Asura path but found that he couldn't break through the skin, he decided to put his sword away and began making hand seals. He then breathed out a large burst of wind which flew quickly at the path, it was intercepted by the Preta path which began to absorb the chakra from his technique. Unfortunately for this path Naruto quickly ran at it and before the Asura path could help it he removed both its arms and its head. He then re engaged the Asura path but left a clone to make sure that the Naraka path couldn't get anywhere near the body of the Preta path. Naruto quickly ran at the Asura path and began a quick punch to its face, it wasn't damaged much but it flew back, Naruto then focused on the Naraka path which tried to stay away from him. He smirked beneath his mask and lunged at it, he quickly decapitated it and it fell to the ground, the Asura path then came after him. It now had all six arms, three faces and strange saw-like tail, the path fired off rocket hands at him and he was forced to dodge. He rushed at it, still dodging the projectiles, and came close to the path. He dodged the tail which tried to hit him during his approach and managed to avoid all his strikes, he then took out his sword and struck the path. This time he removed an arm, the path looked surprised and Naruto smirked, he channelled more wind chakra through the blade and jabbed at the rinnegan user's puppet.

The path dodged the attack but then found a sword sticking out of his chest, he turned and saw the clone that was taking care of the Preta paths body sticking its sword through his chest. The body then fell and crumpled, Naruto made sure it wouldn't move again by decapitating it. He then looked to the sky where he could see his sister fighting the airborne Pein's. He put as much chakra into his feet and jumped at the floating bird.

(With Fu while Naruto fought)

Fu found herself flying before the righted herself with her wings, she saw a large bird with two Pein's on its back. Another Pein was beside them, hovering menacingly. She quickly fired off some of Chomei's scale dust to blind her opponents but the Deva path blasted them away, she flew at the opponents on the bird too quickly for them to follow and managed to strike the Human path, knocking him off the bird. The path was falling but Fu was once again blasted away by the Deva path, she was sent flying far away but soon righted herself in time to see the Human path be saved by the bird.

She spun around in the air and yelled 'winged beheading', she fired two blades of chakra at her opponents, one hit the bird but the other was dodged, she quickly flew around them firing off blades of chakra. A few of them hit but most were either dodged or blocked by the Deva path, she was thinking of unleashing her bijuu's cloak, she finally managed to get the bird to dispel. The Animal path unfortunately summoned a large rhino to break their fall, they stayed on the ground for now and didn't do much but allowed the Deva path to watch her every move. She flew at him quickly but feinted to the side when he raised his hands to block her, she swerved to the side and fired another blade at him. He managed to dodge the blade but had already fired a Shinra Tensei at her. In the five seconds, she flew at him and was about to strike him in the stomach with a kunai, unfortunately he predicted this and had a chakra rod aimed at her stomach.

She was forced to swerve and he had time to use Shinra Tensai to fire her towards the Animal and Human paths. The rhino was about to spear her with its horn but she managed to avoid it and spun around, she re-gained her balance and turned in time to dodge a large two headed dog. She fired a blade at it with as much chakra as she could and was rewarded with the dog splitting in two, she then remembered this dog's ability and swore lightly. Now the two dogs ran at her, she flew into the air to dodge the dogs but found that the bird had been re-summoned, she was forced to dodge several chakra rods that were thrown at her.

She then flew straight at the bird too quickly for its occupants to react and stabbed the Human path in the chest with a kunai, she then threw the body to the ground and looked at the Animal path. She was thrown of the bird by the Deva path and quickly caught herself in mid-air, she turned back to the paths and saw they looked worried. She found out why when Naruto appeared on the bird, he slashed at the Animal path and cut her right arm off, he then slashed a diagonal strike at her chest. Unfortunately, he was thrown off before he could fully kill the path, though for the moment she was out of commission, she would be able to fight and possibly summon one handed so they would have to keep her permanently down.

For now, though Naruto was falling, way too high for him to land without breaking several bones, during the fight, that would equal death. He was aware of Fu scrambling to save him but the bird blocked her path, he was falling to the ground now and could do nothing to stop it. Unless, he tried what he had recently been experimenting with, at this point there was no choice. He quickly gathered some sage chakra while he fell and managed to get enough, now or never.

What he was doing would be considered impossible even by the wind masters in Suna, at least without a medium to channel chakra. Unfortunately, the masters in Suna never had access to sage mode, Naruto had made this theory but never succeeded when he began to test it, but now it was his only option. He slowly realised that the sound of the wind had stopped going past his head, he opened his eyes and looked around him. He was flying! It worked, unfortunately he could feel a considerable drain on his sage chakra, he figured that if he could actively change sage chakra into wind sage chakra he would be able to make a consistent flow of chakra to surround him constantly pushing him up. It also had the effect of acting like an armour, unfortunately it took an awful lot of chakra to keep it surrounding him, a normal person, even a sage would only last a minute at most before death. Since he needed sage chakra it made the task much harder, it also made it impossible to enter sage mode while flying.

He figured he had about two minutes before he ran out of sage chakra so he had to work quickly, he flew quickly and killed the Animal path and its bird by cutting her in half. The Deva path looked shocked at his re-appearance, he then decided to try a new attack, he put his hands together and opened them to reveal a black orb. He threw it at Naruto and Fu's direction, they dodged and were slightly confused.

 **"Kit, get away from that!"** The Kyuubi yelled at him from his mind.

It was too late though, he felt the pull of gravity acting on him and realised that the orb must attract other objects to it. He saw the ground being pulled up and flying towards the orb, it resembled a boulder at this point but it was rapidly growing. It was huge, both he and Fu tried to fly away from the young moon but found it was getting increasingly difficult. He absentmindedly noticed that Pein was still in the same position and realised that he was when he began the technique, it didn't seem to affect him at all. Naruto guessed that maybe he could destroy the orb in the centre, he did something that caused Fu and Pein to gasp in surprise. He removed his bow, Fu realised that it was time for him to be known to the world and Pein realised that Sionnach was Naruto. Naruto aimed his bow at the very centre of the, now, moon and fired an arrow, they arrow was shaped like his Musei hiko arrow but he did a different jutsu.

"Arashinome!" (Eye of the storm) He yelled and the arrow flew into the centre of the dense mass of rock, it went straight through the rock, Naruto then smirked and made bird hand seal and whispered, "disappear silently." Then the large jutsu seemed to expand slightly for a minute before it fell apart, the rocks crumbled and fell back to the ground, Pein looked shocked.

He then started to slowly fall to the ground, exhaustion clear on his face, Naruto and Fu quickly flew down, Naruto ripped one of the chakra receivers from Pein's face and stabbed his arm with it.

"We'll be there soon." He promised before tearing it out and crushing it in his hands, he then gathered sage chakra for his flight and brought Fu with him to meet the real Nagato. The arrived and found a tree made of paper, they tore through it and saw Konan get ready to fight them but Nagato looked exhausted. "How's it going?" Naruto asked.

"You? How are you… you fooled everyone." Nagato said, confusing Konan.

"Yes, and do you know what, it worked." Naruto said before blurring out of existence and appearing behind Nagato.

"Nagato!" Konan yelled in fear, then Nagato coughed up blood and a wound appeared on his chest, a diagonal slice going from his left shoulder to his right hip. He then fell forward and died. "No!" Konan yelled sadly.

"I'm sorry, but you brought this on yourself." Fu said, she then stabbed the woman in the chest before she could react, "I hope you find happiness in the next life." She said sadly, Konan and Nagato weren't evil like much of the other Akatsuki members, they were just misguided, they felt like what they were doing was right. They would die without seeing the peace they dreamed of. Naruto quickly removed Nagato's eyes and put them in a container like the one Itachi's eyes were in.

"Now it's time to say goodbye." Naruto said, he then knocked Fu unconscious, he would have to act as he was aware that Zetsu was watching, "you were fun to fight with, and for that I won't go after your bounty, but I'm afraid that you can't follow me." Naruto said and then left. He flew off using his newly acquired skill, he felt like he was betraying his sister even though this was part of her plan.

Zetsu appeared out of the ground and smirked, "that was easy." His light side said, "yes, now we have seven of the bijuu and now know where the last two are." He said, never suspecting that the whole scenario could be a trap. "It is a shame that we lost the eyes though." White Zetsu said, "yes, but in the end, we can take them back."

(Weeks later)

Now, all the bijuu had been taken, and sealed except for Naruto, B had been taken by Obito and had been extracted a few days ago, the Raikage was angered and had declared a five kage summit. It would be held in the land of iron; the samurai would be hosting it. It was to happen tomorrow and all the kage were on their way, Naruto had decided to meet up with Tsunade on her way to the summit. Right now, he was standing on the path that she would take, he was waiting for her to show up, he finally sensed her, she was about a half mile away.

When she reached his location, he looked at her and smirked behind his mask, "hello, baa-chan." Naruto said.

"Don't you dare." She said, she had gone to the kage summit with Yugao, and Kurenai as her guards, she wanted Anko too but they were only allowed two guards, the two of them were very tense and stood beside her clenching their fists.

"Aww, what's wrong Baa-chan? Too much sake?" Naruto asked with false humour.

"Free him." Tsunade said angrily.

"Who's to say I haven't?" Naruto asked, "maybe he hates you for abandoning him, he might be plotting his revenge right now." At this they all tensed.

"Stop playing with us!" Kurenai yelled, "he would never do that!"

"Oh, but it's so fun, and you don't know him as well as I do." Naruto said.

"You're lying!" Yugao yelled in anger.

"Oh, so did he tell you his biggest secret?" Naruto asked, "no, he was too scared you'd judge him. Even now he has told no one, not even his 'mother'." In his head Naruto felt fresh fear and mentally yelled at Sionnach causing him to wince slightly, it was a good thing Kurama wasn't listening in.

"Then you don't know?" Tsunade said thinking she had won.

"Oh no, I found out after his mind broke the first time." Sionnach said dismissively. 'Shut the fuck up and change the subject.' Naruto said in the mindscape.

"Why are you here?" Tsunade asked, trying to contain her anger.

"Just wanted to say that you can tell the other kages who I am, hell, tell everyone. The Akatsuki know now, though their leader is now dead." Naruto said.

"You killed him?" Yugao asked.

"I killed the leader, there is another leader though he hides in shadows." Naruto said, "I just wanted you to know. Oh, I also love the sword you gave me."

He then puffed into smoke, proving him to be a clone leaving a very pissed off trio of women. They quickly made it to the building where the summit was being held and entered to find the other kage were already there. The summit began and was going as well as could be expected, it was interrupted however when Zetsu and 'Madara' appeared, they spoke for a while and declared the forth ninja world war, as they were about to leave Naruto appeared.

"Well, well, well. Just who I wanted to see." 'Madara' said.

"Oh, hello, why are you looking for me?" Naruto asked with false ignorance.

"Because you are the nine tails Jinchuuriki, Naruto Uzumaki." 'Madara' said.

"And you are Obito Uchiha." Naruto said shocking everyone, Obito the most, "I guess we have some things in common then, we both betrayed the village, both got brainwashed by some weirdo, both of us have stolen some eyes and both of us know exactly what you are trying to do. The difference is that you are an idiot who follows the orders of a bigger idiot." Naruto said. "Now leave." He said, Obito left, shocked that someone had found out his identity, Zetsu along with him.

"Why are you here?" the Mizukage, Mei, asked sweetly.

"For fun, why else?" Naruto replied.

"Release Naruto now." Tsunade said.

"You still think that Kyuubi's in control, you are so wrong." Naruto said and pulled off his mask. "Every word I said was true but never once did I say that I was the kyuubi, no. I am Naruto Uzumaki, son of the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. Now I am also the last Jinchuuriki." His mask was off now showing all the scars covering his face, this shocked all of the people present.

"Your lying." Tsunade said, "Naruto would never wilfully leave the village!"

"And yet here I am, a traitor. I used the kyuubi as a cover story when I knew you would find out. I had everyone think I was dead so that I could live, free and without having to look over my shoulder to make sure that I wasn't going to be stabbed or beaten." Naruto said with venom.

"You're lying!" Kurenai shouted.

"How do you want me to prove it to you? I could let Kaa-chan take over and see what it is like when she's actually here." Naruto then turned more feral and his eyes changed to red with slits, **"the kit speaks the truth."** He then returned to normal.

"B-b-but-t wh-wh-what about us?" Yugao asked fearfully, she believed he was her brother.

"What about you?" Naruto asked.

"We're your sisters." Kurenai said, "why did you leave us, why did you let us think you were dead?"

"It… it was easier that way." Naruto said, regretfully, his eyes flashed blue momentarily, "that place is your home, I had no right to take that away from you."

"You're our brother! We would have stayed with you!" Yugao said.

"And that's why I didn't say." Naruto said, "it kept you safe, if the Akatsuki found out they would have come after you. I had to stay dead to make sure they wouldn't find you."

"We would have been fine, we were safe in the village." Kurenai said.

"You were safe, it was my prison. If I'd have stayed I would have just been sent on suicide missions by the council. If they found out I was alive they would have put a bounty on my head." Naruto said.

"What about your eyes? Why did they go red?" Kurenai asked.

"Maybe I just wanted to match yours." Sionnach said with a grin, his eyes flashed blue again and he looked at her sadly, "sorry, but that would take a while to explain, the short version is I-"

"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but we are at war right now with the god damned Akatsuki." Ay interrupted.

"Good point, now as far as I know there are only Kisame, Obito and Zetsu's army." Naruto said, his eyes going crimson again, "so unless they have any other hidden members, we'll be fine."

"I'm sorry, who's army?" Onoki asked.

"Oh, you see the white plant thing, there's an army of those. Chanel some chakra throughout your body two minutes." Naruto said, they all did so and suddenly Zetsu's sprouted off them. "Yeah, they are little parasites, but they're easy to kill." He then sliced all the Zetsu's off the kages and they fell to the ground all but one died. "They can also mimic people's chakra and change into them, the perfect spy."

"How do you know this?" Zetsu asked weakly.

"I'm just a better spy." Naruto said before slicing his head off, "so, that's all, get ready for the war, um, bye." Naruto then puffed into smoke.

"Damn it," Tsunade swore, "where did he go?"

"So, it was him the whole time huh." Yugao said sadly.

"I guess so, what do we tell Anko?" Kurenai replied.

"I don't know." Yugao replied.

(Weeks later)

The war had begun, all the nations fighting the Akatsuki, it was found out that Kabuto was working with them and had perfected the Edo Tensai. He summoned an army of ninjas from the past to fight against the armies and the, along with the armies of Zetsu had been fighting against the allied shinobi forces.

Naruto had stayed on the side-lines, he decided to watch how it all played out, he kept an eye on his sisters and Garra, he had a clone enter fox mode and watch them, if they ever needed his help they would have it. Now though he decided it was time for him to enter the war, he decided after seeing some of the shinobi summoned that this would be the time to enter the battle. He had decimated armies of Zetsu and had sealed away many of the shinobi summoned by Kabuto. He would end this war in one day, by October tenth this war would be over.

(Artemis camp)

Artemis had been preparing for this day for years, now it was only two days away, she would miss her baby's birthday, but she knew that she would be there for him. She would arrive on October eleventh, she would meet her baby and see how the other Jinchuuriki grew up. She would then take them home. For now, though there was a meeting, probably regarding this very issue. She was heading there now, she had noticed that Zoe had looked different, like she was determined to do something. She had been acting strange ever since she had asked about the quest she would leave on, she was right when she pointed out that she was acting weird. She hadn't been fair to her hunters, she had been too distracted, once her son was ok she would stop acting like the way she did. She needed to tell her hunters the true nature of her question, she hadn't got around to doing so.

She just got nervous, they hated men so how would they take the news that they would have a brother. She would tell them after the meeting, she would do it properly, and make sure they knew the situation. For now, she had a meeting to go to, she made it to Olympus and went to the council chambers.

She sat on her throne and the meeting began.

"We are here to discuss the fates of the Jinchuuriki when they come here." Ares said.

"What do you mean?" Artemis asked.

"Well, it's not like we can send them to the camp, you told us what they were, they may kill the other campers." Demeter said.

"They are as human as their siblings, they've had enough abuse because of it." Artemis growled out.

"That doesn't change things, most of them will be adults anyway. They will be unable to go to the camp." Dionysus said.

"We can sort this out when they get here." Zeus said.

"Also, what of those that were born of broken oaths?" Ares asked.

"They were born from different bodies of ours." Hera said, "besides we both used illusions, we never actually had sex with our partners. Right?" She asked Artemis who nodded in agreement.

"Fine, so it's decided, we will be able to bring all nine of them-" Hestia began.

"Eleven." Hera whispered, the others who didn't know how many kids she had looked at her incredulously, Zeus especially, he gaped at her and she blushed slightly.

"Fine, we bring them all here then what, we can't just leave them in Manhattan." Demeter said.

"That is unimportant, for now, they may stay with my hunters." Artemis said.

"That won't be possible." Zeus said, "the best option is to send them to the camp."

"Fine," Artemis said irritably, "where will my hunters stay while I'm going there?" Artemis asked.

"At the camp." Zeus replied.

"Ok, for now though get ready, their arrival will bring the new prophecy forth." Poseidon said.

"Are we still sure this is a good idea?" Demeter asked, "I mean, that prophecy is as big as the great prophecy the oracle told years ago, it may even involve it."

"We must, you know what happens when we try to stop prophecies." Hades said irritably.

"I must go now, I have to explain to my hunters where I will be going." Artemis said.

"You mean you haven't told them?" Ares said with a grin, "this is going to be fun to watch."

"You will not watch, this is a delicate affair that I will talk with my hunters privately about." Artemis said as she left.

(At Artemis camp)

The hunters had all been told by their mistress to gather around the fire in the centre of their camp, their lady had to tell them something. They waited for her to return from Olympus anxiously, Zoe assumed that this was about the quest she would go on. Finally, their mistress appeared and stood next to them, they lined up in front of her and waited for her to begin.

"My hunters, I have a mission to undertake, it is difficult to explain but…" She went on to explain the concept of the other universe she then went on to say that there were children of the gods there. "and so, my father Zeus has deigned me the task of recovering the children of Olympus from that world, before they are stuck there forever." Artemis finished.

"My lady, why has lord Zeus decided to send you there?" Phoebe asked.

"I, was one of the gods who went to that world, I knew some of the demi-gods the gods created. They were nice people and I raised some of them when they were younger, but you see they aren't exactly normal demi-gods. They are what that world calls Jinchuuriki, they have beast sealed inside them, when I selected my body I became one myself. These Jinchuuriki are treated less than human as the beasts are forces of mass destruction, they have enough power to rival us gods." The hunters were shocked at this. "I also left… something in that world that I need to recover." Artemis cursed herself for her fear of them finding out.

"Milady why don't we accompany you?" One of the younger hunters asked.

"The door between the worlds will only hold for so long, I won't be able to safely bring any of you to that realm." Artemis replied with a sad smile.

"Where shalt we stay then, whilst thou complete thine quest?" Zoe asked.

"At the camp." Artemis said, the hunters all groaned slightly at that.

The hunters then went to their tents and went to sleep, Zoe had the same dream again, but just as the arrow was about to hit, the scene changed. She was now in a void, she could hear voices whispering, coming from around her, she could see nothing. She turned trying to find the voices but could not locate them, then she heard a dark laugh, a mask appeared out of nowhere and faced her. It looked menacing in the dark void, she reached out to touch it, it reminded her of the fox it was the same colours and had the same designs, she reached for her knife but found herself unarmed. The mask continued its approach and she tried to back away, the mask turned to face her and she could see the inside of it, she couldn't move, it suddenly latched onto her face.

She woke with a start, she was fine, it was a dream. She looked around her tent and found her bow, she reached for it and brought it close, the dream meant something, she didn't know what but she did know that mask was bad. She stood up and found her mirror, she looked at it and for a flash it showed the mask, she looked again but found her face was the way it normally looked. She sighed in relief, that mask, what was it? She didn't know, it scared her though. She did know that the fox and mask were connected more than the similar appearance. She would find out though, she would then kill the fox, if necessary the owner of the mask too.


	22. Chapter 22

(With Naruto)

Naruto had just reached the beach where most of the fighting was being done, he fought off the army of Zetsu, destroying them all. He eventually fought off the large number of summoned shinobi, he sealed them all once he was done with them, he tore through the ranks. The other shinobi watched in awe, eventually he attracted the attention of Obito who appeared on the battlefield, he then summoned the Gedo Meizu statue. Naruto told the other shinobi to try to deal with it while he fought Obito, they all tried to take care of the statue but were clearly failing. Obito retreated into the forest, Naruto followed him, eventually he caught up with him and was about to stab him before he knew he was there. Unfortunately, he was blocked by… Roshi?

'That son of a bitch!' Naruto heard Roshi yell from his mind, they had all decided to go into Naruto's mind to view war. They hadn't returned to their bodies, unfortunately, they could clearly see why Obito had kept them in the stasis seals. It seems that he had somehow got his hands on the rinnegan, how Naruto didn't know, but he was currently using the other Jinchuuriki's bodies to act as his six paths. The others came out of the underbrush and stood on a branch in front of Naruto.

'Is he using our bodies?!' Fu asked in disgust.

'Yeah, it seems so.' Utakata said, he looked quite freaked out by the prospect.

'Where did he put the chakra rods then?' Naruto asked.

'Well, we can't see them so…' B began.

'Are you suggesting-' Yugito began.

'-that this asshole-' Hana continued.

'-put those rods under our clothes-' Fu continued.

'-while we were naked?' Yagura finished.

'Yes?' Naruto stated quite scared.

'Naruto-kun.' Yugito began in a sweet voice, 'make sure he suffers, but leave the final blow to us.'

'Yes Nee-chan.' Naruto replied, now even more scared of what this fool would suffer through.

Naruto was suddenly forced to block a strike from Fu as she swooped down and swiped at him with her wings. He then jumped back as Hana lunged at him and shattered the tree he was previously standing on, he pulled out his sword and blocked a strike from Yagura's staff.

'Where am I?' B asked, his body was apparently the only one not in possession of the mad Uchiha.

'I don't know.' Naruto replied. He dodged a strike from Yugito but was forced back when she blew a ball of mouse shaped fire. He then had to dodge several water dragons from Yagura, and several globs of lava from Roshi. He found that the Jinchuuriki shared each-others field of view like the paths of Pein did, he also noticed that all of them had one rinnegan eye and one eye that looked like Obito's mangekyo. It seemed they had the best of both doujutsu and could predict Naruto's strikes as well. Then he managed to gain some ground when he managed to slice Yugito across the chest, he spotted the rod and Yugito screamed bloody murder in his head.

He then defended against another strike from Hana who tore another tree out of the ground, he then blocked another of Fu's air strikes and nearly stood in a lava pit by Roshi. He was forced to continuously dodge and didn't get many strikes in, he did manage to find where all the chakra rods were on each of their bodies after several attempts. The loud screaming from all his sisters was very distracting though, he did manage to score a few hits though, they all fell back and Naruto got slightly worried. Then to his slight shock each of them grew a tail and got much faster and stronger, he was eventually pushed back into a large clearing and found the Gedo statue behind him. It was standing there motionless, on it was Zetsu? Yeah it was Zetsu but it was possessing… B, who in the mindscape threw up slightly.

Suddenly all the Jinchuuriki burst out of the clearing and began entering the stage two bijuu cloak, Naruto quickly began dodging strikes from the red Jinchuuriki and found himself trapped between them. He decided enough was enough and entered sage mode, he then transformed into a huge eight tailed silver fox. He had finally made it up to the eighth tail and had mastered the transformation, he was now just shorter than the bijuu, if he gained a ninth tail he would become immensely more powerful and chakra wise he would be at the level of all the Kage's in history combined.

The other Jinchuuriki weren't deterred by this transformation and Hana began to grow bigger, until she formed Kukuo. Naruto was knocked back by the charging bijuu but eventually gained ground, he soon managed to stop the dolphin horse by using his tails to keep all the limbs busy. He then gave the bijuu a headbutt which sent it back, it hurt Naruto too but he dealt with the pain, Kukuo was teasing him slightly in his mind. He then heard a noise and turned to see Isobu rolling his way, grinding up the dirt as he went. Naruto did a tactical retreat but found that Matatabi was behind him, sending streams of fire his way. There was no way he was winning this easily, he put a tail in front of him for protection and Isobu slammed into it, he then surrounded himself in his tails to protect from the fire.

The smell of his burnt fur and skin wafted through the air and the watchers in his head flinched, he finally removed his tails from around him and showed that his body wasn't burned. His tails on the other hand were burned and torn apart, they hung limply behind him now, all but one which had somehow survived the cats fire. He winced in pain and jumped back as far as he could, all the bijuu were now in front of him except for Gyuuki. Suddenly he heard a noise and felt a rise in chakra, he saw that Zetsu/B was growing and had now turned into the huge form of Gyuuki. Naruto knew that there was no chance of winning this fight without his Kaa-chans help so he decided to try something.

'Kaa-chan, could you give me some chakra?' Naruto asked inside his mind.

 **"But the sage chakra will cancel it out."** Kurama replied.

'I know, I just want to try something.' Naruto replied, he then felt some new chakra enter his system and smirked, he channelled his sage chakra and connected it with the demonic chakra, he then filtered it through his system. He felt his power rise and smirked. 'I was right.' He said. He felt his body being healed, not as fast as when he used his Kaa-chans chakra directly but his burns started to disappear and found that his tails were working again. He then felt the rest of the chakra move to the base of his spine and he felt a power he recognised, he was growing his ninth tail!

His body started growing slightly and he soon found that he was just smaller than the bijuu, he now had nine tails swishing behind him. His fur was renewed, silver fur glinted in the fading light of the sun, his eyes were slit but still his normal blue. He looked at the eight bijuu and smirked, they all ran at him, now he was sure that Obito was controlling them, they didn't fight like they normally would and therefore weren't talking advantage of their abilities. They weren't as strong as they were normally, they would, under normal circumstances, have destroyed him in a fight. Unfortunately for Obito, Naruto knew enough about them to fight them fairly, he quickly lunged and grabbed Saiken by the neck with one of his tails and pushed some sage chakra to cancel out some of the slug's power, he then found the rod and took note of its position.

Before he could take it out he was smashed from the side by Kukuo, he saw the rod buried in the horse's neck and remembered where he was. Isobu came rolling and Naruto swerved out of the way and the turtle stopped, he took note of the rod in the soft part between the shell. Matatabi and Chomei came in from opposite sides and he caught each of them and threw them to the directions they came from. Son Goku finally fired off volleys of lava at him and Naruto moved close and grabbed him by a tail to throw him far away. Gyuuki came in and he was forced to dodge the horns aimed at his chest, a tail came and wrapped around his waist, but Naruto just wrapped the bull in his own tail and squeezed until the grip slackened, he then threw the winded Gyuuki at Son Goku. They were now all facing him again, he knew where all the rods were located on each of their bodies, he smirked and showed off one of the kitsune arts that he had mastered.

He stretched out his tails and they wrapped around each their necks, they were stunned but he used the last tail to wrap around the Gedo statue. He threw the statue away and it landed on its side, he then slammed his final tail to the ground and eight clones appeared from the forest. They jumped atop his tail and climbed their way up to his other tails, the clones then ran to where the bijuu were and quickly grabbed the rods, they tore them from the bijuu and they dissolved into nothing. He then removed Zetsu using some sage chakra. The Gedo statues mouth glowed and purple chains came from it wrapping around the bijuu, it pulled them inside it and its mouth snapped shut, Jinchuuriki and all.

"I guess I'll have to resort to that for now." Obito mused, he then removed a barrel that contained the gold and silver brothers and began to seal them into the statue he then turned and attacked Naruto, he fired off his rods and tried to distract Naruto. Naruto fought the Uchiha and was eventually going to win, he smashed the mask off his face revealing a half-scarred face. Naruto looked him in eye and smirked, then he saw Obito smirk and look back at the statue, Naruto looked as well and saw the statue. Naruto created a large rasengan and then began feeding his chakra nature into it, now there was a tailed beast ball spinning with four blades coming off it. The giant fox then threw the ball of chakra at the statue. He yelled out "Rasen-shuriken!" as he did so.

There was a large blast from the statue and Obito smirked, he ran at the statue and jumped on its now transformed head. He smirked at Naruto as the real Madara appeared beside him, they then stood there in their assumed victory. The ten-tailed beast was now complete. Naruto knew that they would soon try to get the rest of the nine-tails chakra from him so he was prepared, he began to fight the behemoth and was losing badly, eventually Naruto was sure he would lose but soon found the allied forces backing him up. They began defending him and Naruto returned to his normal form with a grunt, he formed a rasen-shuriken and threw it at the two Uchiha controlling the monster, they lost control of the beast and entered the fight themselves.

Suddenly the previous four Hokage appeared on the battle field along with Orochimaru and the Konoha eleven, they looked at Naruto and he looked back at them. He then turned to his 'father' and looked away, "You try to tack care of the Uchiha's, I'll handle the juubi." Naruto said before he jumped off.

"Is that him?" Minato asked.

"Yeah, that's him." Shikamaru replied.

Sauske knew he was taking a gamble when he agreed to work with the snake again, but now they had the four Hokage on their side. They would win this war.

The kage eventually lost to Madara's reincarnated form, there were many losses in the war as the ten tails was destruction incarnate, Naruto did however manage to damage it a good bit. Eventually Obito was on the floor, a hole in his chest thanks to Kakashi, he then did hand signs and the juubi was absorbed into him. He entered a shell and came out looking like the sage of six paths, he had a sword in his hand and looked ready to fight off Naruto. Naruto jumped at him and then their fight began, the two had a short fight with the materialised sword of Nunaboko against Naruto's katana, Naruto won by shattering the sword to Obito's confusion. Naruto then went into his fox form while Obito grew some giant arms, Naruto was winning the fight and eventually Naruto decided that the bijuu deserved some freedom. He slashed through Obito and removed the bijuu from his body, they quickly formed outside and looked at Naruto with gratitude. Zetsu suddenly appeared and took control of Obito, he forced him to do the jutsu to revive Madara and the Uchiha once again breathed fresh air.

He looked at the bijuu with scorn and then said how he would capture them again, he and Naruto fought and Naruto found he was outclassed by the Uchiha in taijutsu, even without his eyes he was an impressive Shinobi. They fought for a while and the bijuu supported him, eventually Zetsu appeared with the eye that had been hidden by Obito and gave it to Madara. The fight ended when Madara began to seal the tailed beasts.

Madara smirked as he began to seal the bijuu again, Shukaku entered the statue, followed by Matatabi all the way up to Gyuuki. Naruto felt his Kaa-chan begin to leave his body and he hid his smirk behind false pain, then Naruto's entire body was absorbed into the statue and Madara laughed. He saw three women crying from over the horizon, the shinobi had gathered to watch the battle, they had seen their brother be consumed by the statue. Madara had won, no one could match him now, he was god he was…

His thoughts were interrupted by a large chakra build up coming from the statue, he looked at it in confusion. He felt the build up again, it was bigger. Suddenly the statue started glowing, it was glowing red and Madara panicked and jumped away from it. Then the statue exploded sending dust everywhere. Madara was in shock, how could this be, his plan failed? No, it was a trick! But how? He couldn't believe it, decades of planning all gone. Suddenly the dust cleared and in its place, were the nine bijuu and their Jinchuuriki. It was their fault!

The Jinchuuriki were laughing, they had done it! All the planning had paid off, now all that's left to do was to deal with the fallout. Garra flew over to them on his sand and joined them, they greeted him with joy and he too was happy. Naruto felt proud. Whilst the war had started he had gone around and collected all the tailed beast's current bodies, he then brought them into his seal and kept them with his Kaa-chan. When the statue absorbed Kurama it absorbed the other bijuu as well, it caused the Juubi to overload and destroyed its body, it would have scattered the bijuu chakra around the world which would eventually reform into the other bijuu but the Jinchuuriki held the bijuu together with their very souls. They had won, the Juubi could never return. Across the horizon Naruto's sisters rejoiced and started to make their way over to where their brother was.

"What have you done?!" Madara yelled furiously.

"We destroyed the Juubi." Naruto said.

"How?" Madara asked in shock, "you can't, it can be re-collected again, I will win!"

"Nope, we've destroyed the last of it, even if you bring the other bijuu together it won't do anything." Yagura said happily.

"No, No, NO! I've been planning this for years! It will not be stopped by you!" Madara yelled.

"Yeah, and we've been stopping you from the beginning, we've known about your plan for years." Roshi said.

"I'll kill you, I defeated you before, blind! I will do it again." Madara yelled madly.

Naruto then disappeared and re-appeared behind the man, "we've been playing you for years, why should we keep hiding our true skill now?" With that he stabbed the man through the chest, killing him. Naruto spotted his sisters coming closer to him, the were still pretty far away though but he would have to talk to them now that the war was over.

"Now all that's left is Zetsu-" Fu began but they felt something powerful coming from the crater that used to be the Juubi, they turned and saw a figure floating in front of them. Kaguya Otsutsuki. Zetsu appeared behind her and then crawled into her sleeve, he was reunited with its mother.

"You," Kaguya began, "destroyed the Shinju?" She finished confused.

"Yes." Naruto said as he stepped forward.

"I have seen into all of your minds, I know I will lose if I were to fight you." Kaguya said.

"Then why are you here?" Roshi asked.

"I have said I viewed your minds, my mind was corrupted by the Shinju, you have freed me, I must leave this place, what use is a nursery with no children, but first, Naruto Uzumaki." She said, "do not trust those you call your brothers and sisters."

"What?" Naruto asked, "what are you talking about?" The other Jinchuuriki felt uncomfortable, if she viewed their minds she will tell him everything.

"Don't listen to her Naruto, it is probably a trick." Yagura said.

"I have no reason, this child is too trusting in you, he has freed me, and so I shall free him from the web of lies you have spun around him." Kaguya said.

"Don't listen to her Naruto." Fu said.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, afraid of what the answer would be.

"Your brothers and sisters, even the one you consider a mother. They deceived you, they want you to themselves, that is why they sped up the process that forced you to flee the village." Kaguya said.

"No, don't listen to her Naruto!" Yugito said, she then lunged at the Otsutsuki but was repelled by Zetsu who wrapped around her.

"Let her go!" Naruto yelled, Kaguya let go of the girl and she fell. Suddenly trees grew and wrapped around the Jinchuuriki and bijuu, leaving only Naruto free. They were restrained but no harm came to them.

"I have no reason to lie to you Naruto, they forced you to go through that pain, they disfigured you, just to make sure that you would leave." Kaguya said, Naruto looked shaken, in his head he was screaming how it couldn't be true, but the dark voice he had called Sionnach was agreeing with her.

"Stop it!" Hana yelled at the woman.

"I am merely unveiling the truth." The self-proclaimed rabbit goddess said, "Naruto, the truth continues, the bijuu, they knew they told the Jinchuuriki, they agreed. They knew what would happen to you, you were, by their hands forced to look the way you do. It was a ploy, to make sure that no man or woman could love you." Naruto felt like hyperventilating, was it true? "They wanted you all to themselves, why do you think they told you to pretend to be the kyuubi? To get those of your village, especially your sisters to hate you. They repressed your memories, forged your new identity. They even repressed your dark side so that he could not help you. They manipulated you."

"N-no! They wouldn't, t-t-they couldn't." Naruto whispered to himself, he looked to his family so they could deny it but they just looked away in shame. "No."

"It is true, as for your other sisters, they never really loved you. Even your darker half agrees." Kaguya continued, Naruto looked up at the goddess and shook his head. Naruto's sisters had finally made it to the spot where their brother and the other Jinchuuriki were, they were captured by the same roots as the Jinchuuriki and bijuu were. They saw their brother talking with the strange woman and heard what she said.

"No, they do love me!" Naruto denied.

"No, they love you mother, they did not search for you out of love, but out of loyalty to your mother." Kaguya said, "you know this to be true if you want proof then try to remember them from before they found out, here I will show you." Suddenly a mirror of water appeared, it showed a memory of Naruto's, he was alone in the streets about four years old, he walked past adults who either glared or ignored him. He then saw a woman, Kurenai, walk past. Out of all the people she glared the most, her eyes showed true hatred. The memory changed, he was about five now, he was healing from a beating and was walking through the streets, his arm had been broken and was still sore. He was knocked over by a younger Anko, he yelped in pain and looked at the woman who knocked him down. She glared at him before walking away. Then a final memory came on, it showed Naruto being beaten by some villagers, he looked up and could clearly make out a cat masked ANBU. She looked at him but did nothing to help him. The mirror faded.

"B-but…" Naruto couldn't finish the sentence, he fell to his knees and sat there, tears flowing freely.

"They did not care for you, you repressed those memories so that you could love them. They hated you." Kaguya said sadly.

"No! Naruto it's not true!" Anko yelled, struggling desperately against the roots.

Naruto ignored her, "I'm alone." He muttered to himself, everyone heard it though, "why? What did I ever do?" He continued quietly, he then stood up and looked away from his 'family', he began to walk away.

"Naruto, you could come with me." Kaguya said, "I will leave this planet, I could take you, you could go anywhere you want to." Kaguya offered.

"No." Naruto answered, he then used some sage chakra to fly away, he left everyone behind him, the moon lit his way. As he left the moon reached the maximum height in the sky, it was now midnight, it was October tenth, his birthday.

Kaguya freed the Jinchuuriki, bijuu and sisters of Naruto. She looked at them with slight pity, "for what it's worth I am sorry, but he needed to know, you hid so much from him." She said to the Jinchuuriki and bijuu, "and as for you, he needed to stop repressing his memories, it was tearing him apart, he also had to see it." She then looked at Zetsu in her sleeve, "and for you, you are the last remnant of my prison." She then used her all killing ash bone to stab him, he faded to dust and drifted into the wind.

She then flew after Naruto, he needed someone, he trusted no one now, but maybe he would hear her out, she had told him the truth. She soon found him in the middle of a forest clearing, there was a river running through it, he knelt on the grass and grabbed his mask. He tore it off and set it in front of him, he then tore his cloak from him and set it on the mask, he walked over to the river and looked at his reflection. When he saw it, he began to cry, Kaguya was right, he would never be loved, who could care for him, he was a monster?

Kaguya came near him and put a hand on his shoulder, "I am sorry." She said, Naruto didn't even acknowledge her, he simply sat there crying over his reflection. "My offer still stands, I could show you new worlds, I could bring you to see distant stars, none would dare judge you."

"My answer is still no, please, just leave." Naruto said, Kaguya complied and left him to wallow in his sorrow.

He then grabbed his cloak and wrapped it around him, he picked up the mask and looked at it for a minute. The white was beginning to fade and there were chips on the edges, the red paint looked like blood, he could see why many had feared it. He contemplated putting it back on but then decided against it, he looked around the clearing and saw no life but him, it was silent. The moon hung overhead and the clearing looked peaceful, he heard a noise and turned towards it, a young fox came out of a bush and stared at him. He stared back, they stayed like that for a minute and Naruto came to his decision, he summoned Kokatsu who had a single tail. She could be bigger and had a total of three tails now but preferred to be small, her mother had begun teaching her sage mode when she was younger.

"Hey Naruto, what's wrong?" Kokatsu asked and tilted her head slightly.

"Nothing Katsu-chan, I just need someone to talk to." Naruto replied.

"Ok, do you want to play a game?" The fox asked excitedly.

"Sure, what do you want to play?" Naruto asked.

"Hmm, how about you pick this time, I always get to pick so now it's your turn." Kokatsu said innocently.

"Fine, how about… we play hide and seek." 

"Sure! I'll hide first."

They played until the sun rose, then they had some breakfast in the fox's realm. They then spent the entire day having fun, playing pranks and playing more games, eventually it was time for them to go in for dinner. Naruto and Kokatsu went to her den were Naruto found a surprise, Shinrin was waiting for them, she had a dinner set out for the three of them.

"What's all this?" Naruto asked, eyeing the food curiously.

"Why this is your birthday dinner." Shinrin said happily,

"Birthday dinner?" Naruto asked confused.

"Well, it's your birthday, isn't it?" Shinrin asked, "so we made you a special dinner."

"But, why?" Naruto asked.

"Because we care about you Naruto, now get stuck in before it gets cold, honestly, it's like you've never had a birthday dinner before." Shinrin said sarcastically.

"I haven't." Naruto muttered and both vixen froze.

"What!?" Kokatsu asked horrified.

"Well then, even more reason for it to be special." Shinrin said, they then sat down and ate a beautiful dinner, it was followed by a small cake which they shared between them. It was one of the best days in Naruto's life.

(With Kaguya)

Kaguya sighed, she truly did want to help him, unfortunately she hadn't exactly been the most social person during her life, she also wasn't the subtlest either. She was grateful, now that she had seen how she had been acting when possessed by the Shinju she wanted to help people. She wouldn't stay here, she would explore the planets again and hopefully find a peaceful place. She wanted Naruto with her but knew that he would not willingly trust again, she had ruined his relationship with all the people he had ever loved. Now though she would leave, she would visit eventually but until then she would go explore the universe again. Such a shame, after viewing his mind and finding his biggest secret she could say she knew him better than anyone, even himself.

(With the Jinchuuriki)

They were all distraught, they had lost their brother and it was all their fault, they just wanted him to live, Kaguya hadn't lied when she said that they knew what would happen. She exaggerated though, the main reason they agreed to the plan was because it saved their brother, they half-heartedly wanted him to stay away from the other humans but that wasn't what they truly did it for. They did it so that their brother wouldn't leave them, now he hated them, they never planned for him to find out. They would try to get their brother back no matter what it took.

(With Anko, Kurenai and Yugao)

The three women knew that what that Kaguya woman had said was partially true, they did originally hate him, they did originally look after him out of duty, but they eventually grew to love him. They truly thought of him as their little brother, they would give anything to get him back. Now though they had lost him, all due to the things they had said and done to him in the past. They would spend the rest of their lives trying to find him and earn his forgiveness.

(On Olympus)

Artemis was ready to go through to the elemental nations, she had been preparing for this day for years. In a few hours, it would be time to take her son home, she would introduce him to her hunters and they would come to love him, it would probably take time but they would accept him. Around the other corners of Olympus, the other gods were restless, they were anxious to meet their children, they truly did love their children and the thought of what Artemis had described Jinchuuriki to be made them feel fear for their children.

All of them wondered how their children would react to them, they wanted to meet them the laws forbade it but they would bend the rules slightly. Hera was probably the most anxious, she had never had demi-god children and now she would have three. She normally hated demi-gods but her children would be different, she remembered playing with little Temari and Kankuro, and remembered naming Garra. She hoped they were ok, then she thought back to something that had worried the other gods with children on the other side. The effect going through the door would have on them. No mortal had ever used them, and the gods always felt different going through it, it normally messed with their looks, changed their hair colour or eye colour, mostly minor changes. But sometimes there were bigger changes, on the way back Ares had come out with a pot belly and was three foot smaller. Another time Aphrodite had gone through she had turned into an old lady and nearly had a heart attack. They fixed their appearance as they were gods and could do that but they still had no idea what would happen to a mortal.

It wouldn't do anything bad and most physical changes would be fixed by the gods when they met their children. Still, there may be other things that could happen when they went through the door, hopefully they would be alright.

In his temple, Ares was getting the finishing touches done on his plan, he wold have their power, the amount of war that could come from that would be immense. He would probably set the gods off to war again if the plan worked alright, he wasn't the best tactician but he'd had years to get this sorted out. Soon they would be his and he would have war.


	23. Chapter 23

(On Olympus)

Artemis and the other Olympians sat on their thrones, today was October eleventh, in exactly one-hour Artemis would go to the elemental nations and get their children. She had left her hunters at the half blood camp and, though they didn't like it, they agreed to stay, Zoe seemed particularly obstinate but eventually gave up her attempts to come with her. She, and the other Olympians were waiting for the time to come anxiously, even those that didn't have children were anxious, except Ares. For some reason, he looked somewhat happy, like he succeeded in something and was waiting to see it all play out.

She knew that she would be able to sense the demi-gods easily, they were the only ones with godly blood, and she knew most of them. She would go there and would find each of them one by one, she just hoped that Zetsu hadn't began his plan, to her knowledge there was no solution to that problem. Maybe they had defeated him, but she had no clue, she would probably be able to find out by the state of the world she would enter. She would bring her son back, and the others, for now she just had to wait. Her son would be alright, she quickly thought back to her only memory of him, his small form in her arms as she died, her husband's corpse beside her. A memory that should have depressed her now only made her want to be there again, she wanted to see him, to old his infant form.

She knew that the other Olympians were never able to see their children, but for her she would be able to see him much more. Her and Dionysus were the only ones who had any contact with the demi-gods, her, as many of her hunters were demi-gods and Dionysus as he was forced into looking after the camp. The gods knew he secretly enjoyed spending time with his children as he loved them like they loved theirs. Though he missed his wife on Olympus and drinking, he enjoyed being in contact with his children, and many of the gods were slightly jealous of him.

Now the time was approaching she was getting more nervous, what if he hated her for abandoning him? No, there was nothing she could do about it. She would bring him home and then she would explain everything to him, the same with the other Jinchuuriki.

(In Suna)

Garra was currently facing the wrath known as Temari, she had found out that he knew all about the Akatsuki and was very annoyed at him. He had brought all the Jinchuuriki to Suna with him as the other nations, except for Kumo had them marked as missing nin. Garra was now the Kage of his village and had to return him, since he and the other Jinchuuriki spent so long apart they wanted to stay with him. His biological siblings were at first confused and then eventually angry at him for keeping such a big part of his life from them. Shukaku had returned to living in his seal again and was, now, dozing away, the bijuu were tired from spending the amount of energy they had on the Shinju and had fallen asleep after returning to their seals.

After Naruto had left the battlefield and disappeared, they all went back to Suna, the other Kage, other ninja, councils and basically everyone were pissed that such a big secret had been kept from them. Tsunade and anyone else affected by the kyuubi's memory alterations had their memories returned and were very annoyed at the bijuu. Garra, and the other Jinchuuriki had went to Suna to get some rest before facing the inevitable shit storm, unfortunately for Garra his sister Temari wasn't happy with being left out of the secret. Kankuro wasn't particularly happy either but he knew better than to get between his sister and her prey, especially when she was angry.

"Now how the hell could you keep something like that from us?!" Temari finally yelled.

"I'm sorry, but it couldn't get out." Garra admitted sadly.

"Couldn't you at least have said something like, 'I have a plan to deal with them' or something?" Kankuro inputted.

"I'm sorry." Garra said guiltily.

"Fine," Temari grunted, "so these are your… other brothers and sisters?" Temari asked, awkwardly.

"Yeah, we've always thought of it like that." Garra said, happily changing the subject.

"Is there something wrong with that?" Fu asked accusingly.

"No… I just always wanted to have a sister." Temari said with a slightly nervous smile.

They all looked slightly shocked at that before Fu spoke up, "I guess, we could get to know each other, he is your brother too."

"Thanks." Temari said happily.

"Sure, now, do we have any way to find Naruto?" Fu asked hopefully, they Jinchuuriki all deflated at their brother's name.

"No, he can hide better than anyone when he wants to, and right now, he wants to." Hana said sadly.

"What about the summons, the foxes might know where he is." Utakata said.

"Yeah, I'll summon Kaya." Fu said, she was the youngest of Kokatsu's siblings and had taken a liking to Fu when she was taking care of her. She summoned and the smoke dissipated to show a small fox that looked like Kokatsu but smaller, she had one tail swishing happily behind her.

"Fu-chan!" She yelled, "we play?" Kaya wasn't good at speaking 'human' she could say a few words but Naruto would usually translate for her.

"Not now Kaya-chan." Fu said and the fox deflated slightly, "we are looking for Naruto, do you know where he is?"

"Yup, he at home. He plays with Katsu. Me join in." Kaya said happily, "he birr-birr-birdy, birtay." Kaya said struggling with the bigger words.

"Thanks Kaya-chan, could you bring us to your home, we need to talk with him." Fu asked.

"Sure, I go home, bring you there, not long." She then disappeared and soon after the eight Jinchuuriki puffed into smoke, Temari and Kankuro were left alone again.

"Damn it." Temari swore.

(On Olympus)

There was now only twenty minutes until Artemis could go through the door and finally find her son, she was waiting patiently. Well patiently for Artemis. She was pacing up and down the throne room. The other gods with children were trying to distract themselves with various things. Hephaestus was tinkering with some gears, Hermes was on the phone, Hera was reading a book on parenting, Ares was sharpening his sword, Athena was reading a book on Japanese language, Hestia tended to her fire, Zeus was playing with a plasma ball, Poseidon was reading a fishing magazine, Hades was doing nothing, Apollo was looking at a car magazine, Aphrodite was eating chocolates, Demeter was tending to the small garden she spontaneously created and Dionysus was reading a wine magazine.

Artemis was getting even more impatient, she had called her hunters at the camp to see how they were, they were fine if a little restless. She had been pacing the halls for the past ten minutes and kept looking to the clock, she was getting even more restless. Kushina had appeared from now and then, trying to calm her down, she kept trying to convince her that it would be all right and that she would see him soon. It didn't help, now there was only nineteen minutes.

(With Naruto)

Naruto had been invited to stay with Kokatsu and her mother in their den for the night, he had happily accepted and was only now waking up. When he awoke, he heard some commotion outside the den, he opened his eyes and put his mask and cloak on before leaving the den. He walked to the entrance and recognised the voices, his 'family', he scowled.

 **"I told you, he doesn't want to see anyone."** Shinrin said, in her fox form.

"Please, we need to talk with him." He heard Hana plead.

 **"And I said no."** Shinrin replied.

"Look, we just came to apologise." Fu tried to reason.

"Apologise?" Naruto said, he had had enough, he came out of the den wearing his cloak and mask, he moved like a spectre, "you think I need an apology?" He growled out.

"Naruto." Yugito said sadly.

"You betrayed me, you betrayed my trust. I trusted you with everything, my very life, my very soul, I was going to give up everything, for you, for us." Naruto growled out.

"Please, you're our brother, we just wanted you to-" Fu began.

"-wanted to what, mark me, claim me to be yours, make sure that no one would ever want me? I am not your toy." Naruto said angrily.

"Please, we just wanted to keep you safe!" Yagura yelled.

"Keep me safe? You mutilated me! You scared me, you made me this." He then threw his cloak away, revealing his scared form, he was wearing his trousers but no shirt. The scars on his chest and back could be seen, he then removed the mask, showing his face, Yugito, Garra and B hadn't seen it before. They recoiled slightly from shock, he had tears in his eyes, "you were selfish! You never once considered what I wanted!"

"We just wanted you to be ok." Yugito said sadly.

"Do I look ok?!" Naruto yelled. "I look like this because of you!"

"We didn't want it to turn out like this." Garra said sadly.

"And yet it did, what did you want?" Naruto asked.

"I wanted a family." Garra replied.

"You had a family, you still do, so did B, Yugito and me. The rest of you didn't but we had each other, we mightn't have been able to be near each other physically but we were together." Naruto said.

"It wasn't the same, we wanted-" Roshi began.

"It's always what you wanted, you never cared at all about what I wanted." Naruto said.

"You wanted to die?!" Fu asked angrily.

"Yes!" Naruto said and everyone stared at him in shock, "I've wanted to die for years, but Ka- Kurama always healed me." They were all in tears at this revelation, "I hated it, but then you came along, and my other sisters, things started to get better, but it still hurt. That was why I accepted my death, then you decided to save me, I was grateful but I didn't want it, then that happened, I remembered it all and it was worse. I only kept going on so long because I had a reason, but now, that's gone, my family betrayed me, I have no purpose."

"Please, we love you." Yugito said between tears.

"I know, and that's why it hurts, I love you, I still do, but I can't, I have to go. Goodbye Shinrin, goodbye Kokatsu." He then dispelled himself and went back to the forest he was at before he came here.

(With Artemis)

"Only five minutes" She said to herself. The other gods had lost interest in their distractions and were nervously waiting down the time, soon they would see their children.

(With Naruto)

Naruto looked around the forest, it was so peaceful, he removed his cloak and his mask, he set them down beside him. The mask looked like it was watching him, he looked at it again before once again approaching the river, he viewed his reflection and cried a bit more. He then set his bow down in front of his mask, he then took his sword and unsheathed it, he looked at the blade. It showed his reflection, he had polished it to perfection, it was truly an amazing blade, he then looked at his reflection once more. He did not deserve this blade.

(Artemis)

Three minutes left, she would see her son again, he would be with her once more and he would be safe.

(Naruto)

Naruto took the blade in his hands and inspected it once more, its work with him was nearing its end, soon he wouldn't be able to say he was its owner. He glanced once more at the mask, it begged him to stop, he should wield the sword, his sister had given it to him.

(Artemis)

Time seemed to slow down, she could feel each second pass in slow motion, each tick of the clock seeming like it would never come.

(Naruto)

Naruto raised the blade, he would use it one more time, this blade would end him, the Sionnach would die today. To the world, he fell in the war, he looked back into the eyes of the mask once more, it was the only witness.

(Artemis)

A minute left, if only time would be faster.

(Naruto)

Naruto raised the sword once more, he then stabbed down ending the Sionnach.

(Artemis)

The time had finally come, the Olympians opened the door, it looked like any other door but when it opened it led to an inky blackness. The goddess of the hunt considered the darkness of the doorway, she then took one look at the other Olympians before walking through. She entered and was assaulted by darkness on all sides, she knew where to go though, she went straight forward and found her way to another door. She opened it and made her way through it, she found herself in a forest, she opened her senses and found the eleven demi-gods. Ten of them were in the same place and the other was far away from the rest, she decided to go to the eight first, hopefully her son would be among them.

(With the eight Jinchuuriki)

The bijuu had woken to a presence they hadn't felt for years, it could only be the power of a god, it felt familiar, they knew who it was, this wasn't good. She would not be happy when she learned the fate of her son. The Jinchuuriki had made it back to Suna and were back in the Kazekage's office with Temari and Kankuro, they were explaining what had happened to them in the fox's home.

Suddenly they felt a powerful presence and they turned around to see a young woman had joined them in the office. She wore a silver cloak and they couldn't see her face, the Jinchuuriki felt like she was familiar. They all quickly aimed their weapons on the woman and Garra asked, "who are you? What are you doing here?" The woman looked around them and smiled softly under her hood.

"Well, you've all grown, I remember most of you, I never got the chance to meet Hera's children though. You were so much smaller when I last saw you, except you Roshi, you just look older now." The woman said with a giggle.

"Who are you?!" Roshi asked, to his knowledge there was no one who knew them all when they were younger.

"Well, I guess it has been a while." The woman removed her hood and Roshi gasped, the other Jinchuuriki looked confused but felt they knew this woman, she appeared as Kushina.

"You-you're dead!" Roshi said confused, "this is a trick!"

"It's no trick Roshi-kun, I'm here." Kushina said with a smile, "I'll prove it, do you remember when you accidently learned you were fire-proof?" Roshi paled slightly, "you were pretty bored and then decided that it would be a good idea to test what would happen if you-"

"No don't!" Roshi said in fear, "you are her." He said quietly.

"Yes." Kushina said sadly.

"Where have you been, it's been seventeen years." Roshi asked, accusingly.

"It's… complicated." Kushina replied truthfully.

"I thought you died." Roshi said.

"I did." Kushina replied truthfully.

"Who are you?" Garra asked again, annoyed that his brother seemed to know this woman.

"I'm Artemis, goddess of the hunt, moon, chastity and the natural environment." She said confusing everyone, "but you would know me better, as Kushina Uzumaki, mother of Naruto Uzumaki." She finished causing all of them to look stunned.

"What-but-how?" The Jinchuuriki asked confused, Artemis then gave a brief overview of the dimensional door and how she was trapped in her world.

"But, why did you come back?" Fu asked, she remembered her now, she used to sing to her when she was asleep.

"For my son, and you." She replied truthfully, "do you know where he is?" The Jinchuuriki looked crestfallen.

"It's a long story," Roshi finally said, he then gave as brief an overview as he could up to their current situation, Artemis naturally got pissed.

"How could you do that to him?!" She asked angrily.

"We just wanted him to live." Yugito replied.

"That's no excuse, that was selfish." She sighed, "regardless, I'm to take you all home to your parents." Artemis said, confusing the Jinchuuriki.

"What do you mean?" Fu asked.

Artemis again sighed, "you see I wasn't the only god to come to this dimension and have children, many of the others did as well." Artemis said surprising them, "you are their children," they looked shocked at this revealed information, "unfortunately the door was inaccessible for the past few years. We've been trying to come here and get you for years."

"You know our parents?" Yagura asked, she had always wanted to meet her parents.

"Yeah," she smiled again, "they love you very much, they're very nervous to meet you."

"When can we meet them?" Fu asked, she wanted to get to know her parents immediately.

"As soon as I get Naruto, we'll head home then." Artemis said and they all flinched at the mention of their brother, "I'm able to sense him so we'll be able to get there quickly."

"Where is he?" Hana asked.

(With Naruto)

Naruto had done the deed, he had sliced the mask of the Sionnach in half, a straight cut vertically down. He looked at it once more, he picked it up and placed it in a seal, he then turned and placed his cloak on him, he then turned and headed in the direction of a place he promised not to go again, Konoha.

(With Artemis and the demi-gods)

"He's near Konoha, he seems to be heading in its direction." Artemis said.

"How are we going to get there, its days of traveling." Fu complained.

Artemis smirked, "I have already arranged for us to get there quickly."

(With Naruto, a few hours later)

Naruto stood outside the gates of Konoha, he stared at them for a few minutes. He then began walking forward but was stopped by ANBU. They stood in front of him and blocked his path.

"Who are you? What is your business here?" One of the ANBU asked.

"My name is unimportant, I'm just here to talk with some old friends." Naruto replied, he made sure the hood overshadowed his face so no one could see his face. He had his facemask and bandana on just in case.

"Remove your hood." The ANBU ordered.

"You'd rather I didn't do that." Naruto replied.

"I said remove the hood." The ANBU ordered again, Naruto sighed before he disappeared, the ANBU were shocked, they hadn't seen anyone move at speeds like that, the only person who was rumoured to move like that was… the Sionnach.

Naruto quickly made his way to the kage's tower, he entered through the window and saw Tsunade half asleep on her desk, he coughed into his hand and she awoke. She looked around and saw him, she recognised the cloak.

"Naruto?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's me Baa-chan." Naruto replied, smiling under his hood.

"Why have you come here?" Tsunade asked Naruto.

"I… needed to speak with my sisters… I also need to talk with the Konoha eleven." Naruto said sadly.

"I'll call them here." Tsunade said, Naruto nodded and then sat on the sofa while Tsunade went about arranging for the selected people to come here.

Soon they all arrived, none of them noticed Naruto in the corner, he hid his presence well and just sat there waiting for the others to show up. Eventually they all made it and waited for Tsunade to say why she called them here.

"I've called you here, someone wants to speak with you." Tsunade said and gestured to Naruto at the back of the room, he stood up and they recognised him as the Sionnach. Anko, Kurenai and Yugao had tears in their eyes, Naruto sighed and moved closer to them, he pulled his hood off and his eyes were shown to them, he then removed the bandana and facemask exposing his scared face to them. They all involuntarily flinched away from him and he looked saddened at that.

"Hey." He said quietly, Anko quickly went over and brought him into a hug. He smiled lightly at that, Yugao and Kurenai then joined the hug and he felt much happier.

"I missed you so much Otouto." Anko said with traces of tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Nee-chan." After a while the hug broke off but Anko stayed close to her brother, afraid he would leave her again.

"Naruto?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, it's me." Naruto said sadly.

"Have you come back to the village?" Sauske asked.

"No, I… I just needed to talk to you, I feel like I need to explain my actions." Naruto then told them the entire story, he told them how they planned to kill the Shinju, he told them of the other Jinchuuriki and what happened the day he left. They sat in silence for a minute before Naruto spoke again, "I just… I can't stay here, I need some time alone, but you needed to know all this."

He then turned to Yugao, he pulled out his sword and handed it to her, "this is yours, I can't use it, you need to take it back."

Yugao shook her head, "Naruto, that sword is yours now, I gave it to you and you need to be keep it. I can't take it."

"Nee-chan, I abandoned you, I don't deserve it, please, just take it." Naruto pleaded.

"Naruto, I can't, that woman, what she said was true." She began and Naruto turned away.

"So, now one loves me." He muttered quietly.

"No, we love you, at the start the woman was right, we did start loving you out of our loyalty to our sensei, but we came to love you too much. After a while you stopped just being sensei's son and became our brother, we truly do love you." Kurenai said.

"Thank you, Nee-chan." Naruto said.

"We'll always love you Naruto." Anko said and hugged him again.

"Thank you, my students." Came a voice and they all turned to see a woman with a silver cloak standing there in front of the Jinchuuriki. How they got there with no one noticing was a mystery, Naruto looked at them all and looked confused.

"Who are you, and how did you all get here?" Naruto asked.

"Oh Sochi-kun, I'm so sorry." Said the woman in the cloak, she pulled back her hood and all the jonin and the Hokage gasped.

"Kushina?" Tsunade asked.

"S-sensei?" Asked Yugao, Kurenai and Anko.

Naruto just stared at her his heart was racing, he recognised her, she felt familiar. He knew her but from where? Why was she looking at him so intently, she looked so sad? Wait, his sisters called her… Sensei. Then was she his mother? No. She was dead, everyone had told him so.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked slightly angrier.

"Sochi-kun, I am your mother." The woman said and Naruto's heart nearly stopped.

"She's dead, she died the day I was born." Naruto said, "don't pretend to be her."

"I know, I did die in this form anyway." Kushina explained, "my real name is Artemis, I am the goddess of the hunt, chastity, the moon and nature." She said and her form changed slightly, her hair was auburn and she looked much younger, about thirteen, she had silver eyes that looked like the moon.

For some reason, Naruto found himself believing her, "why did you abandon me?" He asked sadly.

Artemis looked heartbroken, "I never abandoned you, I died," everyone looked confused, "I was forced out of this plane, for the past seventeen years I've been preparing to come back for you. I'm not a god of this world, I come from another world, unfortunately the only way to get to this world from mine was sealed away. I unsealed it and came back for you. I'm sorry." She said sadly, "I'm sorry, I never wanted to leave you."

"Sensei?" Anko asked nervously.

"Anko-chan, is that you?" Artemis asked, "and Yugao-chan, Kurenai-chan?" She looked at the three of them.

"Sensei!" Anko cried as she tackled the now smaller girl into a hug.

"There, there, Anko-chan calm down." Artemis said while rubbing the back of her head, "your so much bigger now, I missed you three too."

"I missed you, sensei." Anko said.

"I hear you three were looking after my son." Artemis said, "thank you."

"Naruto, she's here to take us to her home." Fu said nervously, "no one will think we're demons or insult us or hurt us there."

"Our parents are alive too." Yugito said, "we'll get to meet them."

"We won't have to be on the run anymore." Roshi said.

Artemis nodded and turned to Naruto, "will you please come home Naruto?"

Naruto looked to the Konoha eleven, then the Hokage. They looked sad at the thought of him leaving but tried to look supportive. "Can… can I have a few minutes?" Naruto asked and Artemis nodded, Naruto walked over to the Konoha eleven.

"Hey, I… I want to go, I'm sorry I left and I'm leaving again." Naruto said.

"It's ok, we understand. Goodbye Naruto." Shino said, he looked sad, Naruto had never thought he was a freak, he treated him normally.

"Hn," Sauske said, "goodbye."

"I wish I got to know you better Naruto." Sakura said.

"Naruto, I…" Hinata trailed off, Naruto gave her a smile and then hugged her, she felt tears on her face, "I'll miss you." Naruto ended the hug, it wasn't as bad as it would have been years ago, but he still didn't like coming into such close contact.

"Naruto, next time we meet I'll beat you." Kiba said with a forced grin to mask the sadness, Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Yosh! Naruto, you were a truly strong rival!" Lee said, "I must train to match your flames of youth! I wish that we had more time together!" Lee had tears in his eyes.

"Naruto, you opened my eyes, you freed me from my self-made prison." Neji said and he bowed respectively.

"Naruto…" Tenten trailed off, "thank you, you helped me so much. You're the reason I became so strong, you helped me." She had slight tears in her eyes, Naruto accepted another hug, it was starting to make him uncomfortable but he forced himself to endure.

"Troublesome, you always did get into these troublesome situations." Shikamaru said with a slight grin, "I'll miss you."

"Naruto, you were always a nice guy, it's a shame we never got to hang out more." Choji said sadly.

"Naruto, I wish we could have been better friends," Ino said, "I'll miss you." Ino then wrapped him in his third hug, he whispered something in her ear and Ino gasped slightly, "how did you…" she began but Naruto just smiled slightly. "Thank you." She said, then she stood back, she stole a small glance at Sakura and smirked slightly.

Naruto then turned to Asuma, "you were always a good kid, dad always said so, best of luck to you."

Kakashi looked at him and gave a proud eye smile, "sensei would be proud of you."

Then Tsunade walked over and embraced him tightly, "I hope you enjoy yourself gaki, just don't piss off too many people, ok?" At his nod, she smiled and hugged him closer to hide her tears from him.

Naruto then turned to see his sister talking to his mother, they looked quite sad. Anko looked between Yugao and Kurenai and Yugao, she then went over and wrapped Artemis in a hug and stood beside her. Naruto assumed that they were going to say goodbye to him now, Yugao simply smiled at him sadly before leaving the room. Kurenai went over and held onto Asuma's hand, she brought him out of the room, Anko went over to him and brought him into a hug.

"I love you so much Otouto, your mother, she gave us a choice, we can come with you and her or we can stay. I'm coming with you, Kurenai and Yugao have yet to decide." Naruto was shocked at this information; his sisters would stay with him.

"Thank you." Naruto said as he hugged his sister. Naruto then went over to his mother, she smiled at him and brought him into a hug.

"I missed you so much, you'll love it there." She then wrapped him in a hug, he felt slightly nervous but it was less uncomfortable than he expected. It felt strange but not entirely unpleasant. He could get used to it, the hug ended and he heard the door open, he saw Yugao enter, crying slightly but she quickly smiled at him. She wrapped him in a hug and he just hugged her back, soon Kurenai came in after her, she too had tears in her eyes but smiled tearfully at him. She joined in the hug and Naruto felt happy for some reason.

"We're coming with you Otouto." Kurenai whispered, Naruto felt much happier, Yugao nodded slightly and he hugged slightly tighter.

"I think it is time we got going." Artemis said. The Jinchuuriki nodded slightly, "ok, you need to follow me, we need to go somewhere quiet." They all quickly made their way to the training field, Naruto nostalgically remembered it as the field where his sister held the genin test. This was where his career as a ninja began, this would also be where it would end.

Artemis then waved her arms slightly and a door appeared in front of her, she opened it and all that could be seen was darkness, "We'll be going through there, unfortunately I have no idea where we will end up, so we have to go through at the same time, and leave at the same time, otherwise we would end up separated. You're likely to appear somewhere in the right country but, if we do get split up ask around, head for long island." She then grabbed onto Anko, "link up." They all did, Naruto ended up being at the end, holding onto Garra. They then walked into the door, Artemis soon came to the door to let them out, she opened it and went through, she was followed by Anko, Kurenai and Yugao, then everything got messed up. The inside of the door was shaking, Artemis let out a cry of "no" but the door closed. Those on the inside ran at the door but were separated again multiple times, it was chaos. Some of them made it to the door but it closed each time a group made it through.

Naruto found himself alone in the darkness of the void, the others had managed to get out but they had been separated. Naruto opened the door and jumped out, he found himself in a forest, he was alone and he had no idea where he was. He looked around until he found a road, he then found a sign, it was in a different language, if he could read it would say "PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES" He decided to follow the road but he found that it was getting dark, he looked through his seals and found nothing but his broken mask, his bow and a quiver of arrows and the sword he tried to return to his sister. He went to find somewhere to sleep for the time being, he looked at the mask and sighed slightly, he put it on, connecting both halves with his chakra. He then moved forward again only to trip on his cloak, he didn't notice it before but he was now smaller than he usually was. He gathered up his cloak and tied off the ends so he didn't trip again.

When Anko, Kurenai and Yugao looked down they realised that they were much shorter. They were shocked to find that they were younger. They appeared to be about twelve or thirteen years old, they also found that they were in a field, Artemis was annoyed, they then realised they were missing most their group.

"What happened, where is everyone?" Anko asked.

"We got separated, I hope they find their way to the camp." Artemis said.

"So, where are we?" Yugao asked.

"Kansas, I think." Artemis replied, "I'll teleport us to Olympus, you'll have to wait in the lobby." Artemis then teleported them to the empire state building, she walked in and talked to the man at the elevator, none of the ninja could understand.

"Sensei, what are you saying?" Anko asked.

"I was just saying to let me in the elevator… shit, you can't speak English, and neither can they." Artemis just realised the ramifications of her actions, "I just sent eleven demi-gods out into the world without any knowledge of the language culture or anything. Shit." She then sped to the elevator, "wait here." She sped her way up to Olympus and entered the throne room, the others had been waiting there for her.

"Where are they?" Apollo asked in excitement.

"I don't know, we got separated in the door, it started shaking and they lost grip of each other, they could be anywhere." The gods gained wide eyed looks.

Garra woke up, he felt the sun beating down on him, he looked around and found Temari and Kankuro still asleep. They looked much younger than the seventeen and eighteen they should have been. He sat up and looked around him, there was a vast ocean of sand surrounding him, he couldn't see anything but sand. He looked up at the sun, early morning, "Well, at least this world has sand."

Yugito awoke to find herself in a suburban area, she was currently lying on the grass in a park near some houses. She looked around and saw many large houses, she couldn't read any of the signs though, they read like gibberish to her.

Yagura had woken up in worse places, she currently found herself on the beach, she didn't see anyone she recognised, a sign said Santa Monica, not that she could read it. She looked around and stood up, she summed up the entire situation a word that described it perfectly, "shit."

Roshi woke up feeling amazing, he felt younger and healthier and overall fitter. He looked around him there was a small dirt path and up ahead there was a sign, it read Muir woods park.

Hana woke up in a field, she looked around herself and found nothing but grass as far as the eye could see. There were hills covered in grass like that, it felt good being here, she decided to get up and look for any of her siblings.

Utakata woke up in a cave, he was used to it but this cave did not look familiar in anyway. There were stalactites and stalagmites all over the place, there were a few well-placed lights here and there but he had no idea where he was.

Fu woke to find herself in the middle of a forest, she looked around and saw the trees were surrounding her on all sides. She was completely lost.

B had awoken to find himself on top of a large building, he looked around him and found buildings everywhere, they all would easily tower over the bijuu. He saw a large statue in the distance holding a fire and a book, there was a building that caught his eye for some reason, he didn't know why but he felt like he should go there. He leapt from building to building and made his way to the lobby of it, he found a sleeping Yugao, Anko and Kurenai sitting on some sofas in the lobby. No one paid them any attention.

(On Olympus)

The Olympians had been quite annoyed at Artemis but begrudgingly agreed that it wasn't necessarily her fault. Hera had been the most annoyed at her, and had yelled at her for a while, they had been trying to find the demi-gods but unlike in the other world there were godly signatures everywhere interfering with their ability to sense their children. They wouldn't be able to find them unless they gave off a lot of energy which would be bad.

(With Zoe)

Zoe had another dream, she dreamt of a figure, he wore a cloak, it was black on the outside but silver on the inside. She then turned and saw the fox, it jumped up and landed in his arms, he petted it gently and then embraced it, bringing it into his cloak. Then the figure looked right at her and she saw the mask, the one she dreamed of before, he then removed the mask and showed his face, or lack of. It was just a blank place where his head should be, he then walked closer to her, she found that she couldn't move, he came closer and eventually forced the mask on her face. The scene changed and she found herself running, she looked behind her and saw the fox from her other dreams was chasing her. She quickly realised that for once she was the one being hunted, she felt fear in her heart, the creature was gaining on her, nothing she did could stop it. She then found herself unable to move, she was trapped on the spot, the fox was getting closer until it was right behind her, she could hear it breathing.

Zoe woke and nearly screamed in fear, she was in the cabin at the camp, she was fine.


	24. Chapter 24

(With Artemis)

Artemis had gone back to the camp to gather her hunters, they were to hunt down several highly powerful demi-gods. They knew the general location of some of them but it would be hard finding them, they only spoke Japanese and would right now be very confused. Artemis had split the hut into three groups, Artemis lead one, Zoe another and Phoebe the third, they were to find all the individuals and bring them safely back to the camp.

"But my lady, this is a task for satyrs." One of the hunters said.

"No, it is not, these demi-gods each could destroy cities in an instant." Artemis just remembered that her students were still in the empire state building, "Stay here, I have some friends who can help." She then teleported to the empire state building.

An eleven-year-old B was standing there talking to Anko, Yugao and Kurenai, 'one down' Artemis thought, "we need to go, my hunters and I need to find the others." They then teleported back, the hunters were confused at the sight of the now teenaged jonin and child Jinchuuriki. "Ok, we're going to have the three of you split into one of these groups, Anko you are with me, Kurenai and Yugao, you go with Phoebe." Artemis said in Japanese, she then translated it to English. "B, you have to stay here, you can't come with us, I will bless these three but I cannot bless you. Now ladies, as we agreed, you will join the hunt, now say the oath."

Anko, Kurenai and Yugao looked at one another before saying the oath in unison, "I pledge myself to the Goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt." Suddenly a silver glow wrapped around them, they felt amazing, energised, they also felt some knowledge enter them, a new language, a new culture, they knew some things about this land called 'America' they knew so much more. "Wow." Anko said, "I feel amazing." She then realised she was speaking another language.

"Welcome to my hunt." Artemis said, "now, we find the others. There is a large signature somewhere in new York, Phoebe, you will lead your group there. We found a few other signatures in Muir wood park, I will go there."

"What about my own group?" Zoe asked.

"You and your group will form a perimeter around the camp, you need to be here to meet up with any of us who return, I'm sorry but we need some of us to make sure they get here ok, and unless you want to work with B you won't find any of them." Artemis said, Zoe understood her reasoning but felt a sense of dread for this. The hunters set off and separated, each group going to their locations.

(With Fu)

Fu had been wondering the forest for hours, she couldn't find anyone, suddenly she heard a noise and turned, she found herself facing her brother Roshi, but he was… younger. He looked about twelve or thirteen years old, he looked slightly surprised as well.

"Fu? You look… smaller." He said with a confused expression.

"You're one to talk." Fu said, "you look like your twelve or something."

"Um, Fu, I think we have all been… de-aged. You're about seven." Roshi said, Fu then noticed her mush smaller form, her clothes had stayed changed to fit her younger form, Roshi's had done the same.

"What the hell?" Fu asked confused.

"Maybe it's because we went through the door, a side effect?" Roshi guessed.

"Now what?" Fu asked.

"Now we head to long island, isn't that where Artemis said?" Roshi said.

"I think so." Fu replied, "where's that?" Roshi shrugged his shoulders and they sat there for a bit.

"I like it here, maybe we could stay for a few days, who knows, Kushin- Artemis may send someone to get us, she tracked us down before." Roshi said optimistically.

"What was she like?" Fu asked.

"You should remember her, you loved her, she always used to sing to you when you were the young ones to help you with nightmares and things like that." Roshi said.

"Really?" Fu asked.

"Yeah, you used to play with her hair all the time. When you learned to talk you were always a chatterbox, asking questions. You always asked if you could have her hair." Roshi said with a smirk.

"Thanks," they sat in silence for a few minutes before Fu spoke again, "you know I think it would be nice to stay here for a few days, just the two of us, maybe the others will be around here too."

"Maybe." Roshi said.

(With Utakata)

Utakata had been lazing in the cave for a few hours, it was quite nice in here, he always enjoyed living in caves and other dark places. He figured he could stay there for a few hours maybe someone would show up, he had discovered that his body was younger, about seven or eight. He stayed there and dozed lazily for a few hours, he had found the entrance of the cave but didn't leave, he was sure one of his brothers or sisters would find him. If not then he would leave when he got hungry, he heard noises outside the cave but didn't investigate. Suddenly he heard wolves howling, he looked up and saw a wolf walk into his cave, they stared at each other for a bit.

"Hello there, how are you?" Utakata asked lazily, not expecting a reply.

The wolf spoke, in a language he didn't understand, he looked at it inquisitively.

"What do you want?" He asked, the wolf then turned its head towards the cave entrance and seemed to point, it then began to walk away, "you want me to follow you?" he asked, the wolf just continued but turned and pointed with its nose at him, he sighed, "fine." He then followed the wolf.

(With Yagura)

Yagura had left the beach and had headed out of the city she found herself in, she had no idea what anyone was saying. She then found the nearest forest to go to, it was getting late now, suddenly she heard the howls of wolves. She turned and found that she was surrounded by a pack, she looked at them and got ready to fight, but the wolves just looked at her. Then one walked over to her and nudged her hand, it then spoke in the language all the people of the city seemed to speak. She couldn't understand it, it seemed to figure that out, it then pointed in a certain direction and she followed them. Maybe they could lead her to where her family was.

(With Hana)

Hana had been walking around some fields, she had found no one and had decided to take a break, she had been searching for anyone but no one had shown up. She decided to keep looking but quickly removed some food from a seal she kept inside her armour. She then heard something coming her way, she turned and saw a wolf standing in front of her, she looked at it confused for a minute. The wolf said something to her in the language that she couldn't understand, she watched as it seemed to tell her something.

She decided to follow it, the wolf seemed pleased at that and she soon found herself in a forest, she was slowly making her way through it until she found someone she recognised. "Utakata?" She asked, he turned to her and looked happy to see her.

"Hana, you're smaller." Utakata said.

"So are you, we'll ask Artemis about it." Hana said.

"What do we do now?" Utakata asked.

"Follow the wolves." Hana replied, turning to the wolf pack.

(With Garra and his siblings)

Temari and Kankuro had woken up and were now looking at a much younger Garra in disbelief, they then looked at each other and felt even more confused.

"Why are we younger?" A nine-year-old Temari asked.

"I don't know." An eight-year-old Kankuro replied.

"I believe it has to do with going through the doorway, maybe if we find Artemis she can reverse it." Garra said, he sounded serious but his seven-year-old form did not agree with the serious tone.

"Now what?" Kankuro asked.

"I think the first course of action should be getting out of this desert." Temari said.

"I agree, but which way?" Kankuro said, "Garra, can you, ya know, figure it out? You have control over sand, can you tell where it ends?"

"Hmm, the closest end to this desert is that way." He said pointing in a random direction, "it's about three miles walking." They set off in that direction, the heat not bothering them after years of living in Suna, Garra made an umbrella out of sand and covered them from the suns deadly rays. They found the end of the desert they were suddenly surrounded by wolves who all looked at them happily.

"What are they doing?" Kankuro asked, confused why they hadn't attacked.

"They want to talk with us." Garra replied, he looked at them and then looked back at his siblings, "I think they want us to follow them."

"Is that a good idea?" Kankuro asked slightly nervously, "I mean they are wolves."

"We'll be fine, I get the feeling that these wolves have been sent to find us." Garra replied, "Artemis claimed to be goddess of the hunt, this may be her doing."

"Fine, we'll follow." Temari said, they then followed the wolves.

(With Yugito)

Yugito was confused, she had woken in a suburban area but none of the people spoke her language, they looked at her worriedly. She found out she was apparently now much younger, she looked to be about seven years old, she had left the area she had woken in. She now found herself in a large city, the buildings were enormous, bigger than the bijuu, she was amazed. She then found herself in front of a large dog, it was enormous, bigger than one of the strange metal contraptions these people seemed to use. She looked at it and it stared back at her, the creature then lunged at her and she heard someone scream, unfortunately for the beast she was used to fighting far worse opponents and immediately ignited her fist with blue fire. She then punched the dog in the stomach and it exploded into golden dust, she looked down and found a large claw where the monster had been. She looked around and saw that no one was looking at her, was this normal, she shrugged and turned to leave. She then noticed a young girl about her age standing in front of her, she looked terrified of the monster she had just destroyed.

"Hello, are you ok?" She asked, the girl didn't understand her and began speaking quickly in a panic, she suddenly felt a strange feeling go through her and she tried something, "Bonjour, tu vas bien?" The language was unfamiliar but the words just came to her, the girl paused and looked even more confused.

"Comment puis-je comprendre que vous, vous êtes parlant français?" The girl said and she understood exactly what that meant, she looked confused too.

"I don't know." She said in French, "the language just came to me, my name is Yugito Nii."

"My name is Silena Beauregard, how did you do that, and how can you see them, no one else can, I keep telling everyone they're there but they just say I'm lying?" The now named Silena asked.

"I don't know, I just got here and I'm a bit lost." Yugito replied honestly.

"Well, it's a big place, why don't you come over to my apartment, only me and my dad live there." Silena asked.

"I need to find my brothers and sisters." Yugito said sadly, "but they could be anywhere, I don't know where to begin searching."

"I think I can help with that." Came a voice from behind her in Japanese, she turned and found Naruto's sister Yugao.

"Yugao, what are you doing here, how did you find me?" Yugito asked back to Japanese.

"Sensei sent me to find you, sorry for losing you there, we're searching for your brothers and sisters as we speak." Yugao said.

"We?" Yugito asked.

"Yeah, we," she gestured to the girls behind her, "we're part of the hunters of Artemis, immortal warriors, me and my sisters just joined, Artemis blessed us, we can now speak English, you'll have to learn yourself though, who's your friend?" Yugao asked, gesturing to Silena.

"This is Silena, for some reason we can speak some language, I think Silena called it French." Yugito said, Yugao discussed this with the hunters and they gained disappointed looks.

"Apparently, she is like you, she's a demi-god, for now we had better get back to the camp, with luck the others will be there." Yugao said.

"Ok," she said, then she switched to French, "I have to go back to my family now." Silena looked saddened, "but I'll come back here to talk with you again if you want." Silena visibly brightened, and smiled nodding happily.

They then set off, Yugito hoping to meet her mother finally, and hopefully get back to her siblings.

(With Fu and Roshi)

The two Jinchuuriki had been happily enjoying the day in the empty woods, both were used to the loneliness but now that the two of them were together they felt better. They had made a small fire and were cooking some birds that had flown too close to them, they were happily munching away on them. Suddenly they heard voices in the trees and tensed slightly, they then saw Artemis and Anko come through the trees and smiled.

"You want some… whatever bird this is?" Fu asked as they came closer.

"Sure." Anko replied, taking a leg off Fu's hand.

It had taken most of the day to find them but now the Jinchuuriki had been found, two down eight to go. Artemis looked up and realised it was getting dark, she would have to ride her chariot soon, she decided to leave the hunters here to camp for the night and they would find the others in the morning. Who knows, maybe she would see her son from the chariot.

(With Yugito and the hunters)

They had made their way about halfway to the location of the camp that they were to be brought to, the hunters decided that they had covered enough distance and set up their camp. They all got tents out, there was a spare one for Yugito and they happily slept, the hunters told Yugito, Yugao and Kurenai that the moon was their lady's chariot. They were surprised but believed them, they went to sleep with hope that the new day would reunite their family.

(With Naruto)

Naruto hadn't realised it until he woke up but he had slept the day away, he woke up and saw that it was dark out, he climbed a tree and set out in a random direction. Never knowing he was getting closer to losing his life.

(With Zoe)

Zoe had decided to take the watch near the entrance to the camp, she was close to the border and had been pacing her way through the forest. She was trying to piece together the meaning of the dreams; the time was coming closer or so she believed but what did the dreams mean. She assumed that she had to kill the fox, but what if it was not to be taken literally, maybe the fox was the figure in the mask. That would make sense, when the mask had been forced on her she was the one who was hunted down, maybe she could kill him. In the dream where her lady had been hurt it was because of her hesitation. She couldn't afford to hesitate.

She would kill the fox, and if it turned out the masked figure was her prey then they would be dead too. She heard a branch snap and turned to see the masked figure in the tree in front of her, he sat there on the tree, seeming to taunt her. He said something in a language that sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't understand it, he then jumped down from the tree.

He landed in front of her and looked at her, she inched for her bow, suddenly there was a voice in her head, a mere whisper, _'kill him. He is the fox.'_ She believed this to be the voice of her lady or one of the other goddesses, it sounded feminine, but she couldn't remember hearing it before. It must be her mistress's voice, this was a test by her a test of her loyalty. She reached for her bow and quicker than most could blink had fired an arrow at his head, he somehow managed to dodge it and it struck a tree. He looked startled, he took one last look at her and ran.

(Naruto)

What was with that girl? She shot at him, he barely managed to dodge the arrow aimed at his head, it would not be nice having one of those in his head, he ran, his hood flew off exposing his hair to the moonlight, it shone through the trees and beams of it seemed to follow him. He heard arrows flying past him and he dodged them as best he could. His younger body wasn't ready for fighting, it also felt natural running, maybe it was because this was the age he spent running from- no. Don't think of that, he was scared, he couldn't think straight, he didn't want to get hurt again. No, that was his younger self talking.

He should turn and fight, destroy this girl for daring to fire on him. No. That was the Sionnach talking, he was Naruto, or was he the Sionnach? No, he was… demon? No! That's what they called him though wasn't it, no one could love him. No! He was Naruto Uzumaki, son of-

"Artemis!" He recognised his mother's name but none of the rest of the speech from the girl, it seemed like a war cry. Was she a friend of his mother's? No! She was trying to hurt him; his mother wouldn't hurt him. But the one he called Kaa-chan did. Wasn't Kurama his mother? No. He was betrayed, why? All these thoughts were scaring him, he felt pain in his leg, he looked down and saw an arrow in his thigh. He missed the next tree and found himself falling.

(Artemis)

Artemis drove her chariot, she looked down every now and then, she was over camp half-blood right now, she peered down and saw through the treetops. She saw a flash of blond that looked so familiar, her sons? She looked again, sure enough she could make out some gold flying through the trees, she quickly split her essence and kept a part flying the chariot while the rest went to get her son. She found herself in a forest and saw her son, he fell from the tree and had an arrow piercing his knee?! She ran to him, she saw another arrow heading towards him, a silver arrow that looked horrifyingly familiar, she couldn't stop it out of shock, that was an arrow of her hunters.

It flew through the trees and there was a horrifying sound, a mix between a crack and a squelch, the sound of something cracking a skull and damaging the brain. A perfect hit.

(Zoe)

Zoe finally managed to injure him, he fell from the tree thanks to the arrow in his leg, she aimed once more and it flew to his head. Nothing could stop the arrow, it hit its mark and she had won, she had done as her lady commanded, she had killed the man. She saw her lady appear, she was no doubt here to congratulate her for passing whatever test she had passed, or to thank her.

(Naruto)

Naruto fell, then he felt agony rip through his head, it was cold, like he had just eaten a huge tub of ice cream followed by a glass of liquid nitrogen, it started at the back but quickly tore through the rest and out the front. He turned and saw his mother running toward him, then the hunter who had shot him, his eyes closed and he saw nothing.

(Artemis)

Artemis was in shock, she just watched one of her most loyal hunters kill her son, she ran towards him and saw his eyes close. She felt tears fill her vision, her son was gone, she had failed him, and it was her hunter who fired the arrow. She removed the mask from his face and took his cloak off him, his face could be seen in the moonlight, she could only imagine how he felt.

(Zoe)

Her lady had run to the man, she removed his mask to show the horribly scared face of a young boy of about seven. She felt a fear and guilt weigh up inside her, even though she hated males she didn't hold that hate against the young and innocent, it would be foolish to believe that the child would understand. Maybe this was another test, she walked over to her lady, the one she had served for thousands of years, "my lady?" She asked.

(Artemis)

When she heard Zoe's voice she refused to believe it, her lieutenant had killed her son, impossible. It wasn't like she knew he was her son, but why? Why would she kill him? She held her son gently in her arms, her lieutenant came over to her and spoke, she didn't care what she would say, this was unforgivable. "Why?" She finally asked.

(Zoe)

Zoe gained a puzzled look, "why, what does't thou mean?" Zoe asked.

"Why did you kill him?!" Artemis asked angrily.

Zoe shrunk back, "w-w-what does't thou mean, was it not thou who commanded myself to kill the figure?" She asked with fear.

"No, I would never ask to kill him, he was the reason I went to that world." Artemis said sadly.

"Who is he?" Zoe asked, confused to the child that her lady cared for.

"Naruto Uzumaki, my son." Artemis said, she then burst into tears.

Zoe felt shock, her lady had a child! He was a boy! How? "My lady, w-what doest thou mean?"

"I kept my oath, but he is my son." Artemis said between tears, cradling her son in her arms.

"But…" Zoe felt fear, sadness and regret, and many more emotions, how, why had she taken away her lady's child?

"Zoe," spoke Artemis, a firm tone in her voice, "go to the camp, tell the others of what you have done, of who you have killed. Tell them that you have murdered my only child." Artemis spat angrily, "I will decide your fate when I have returned."

Zoe felt fear in her heart, "my lady, please-"

Artemis rose to her feet and looked Zoe in the eye, she set Naruto's body on the ground gently, "You have killed my son, by thankful I have not destroyed you, our past can only save so much of you though. Now leave!" Artemis said, her power flaring.

"I'm sorry, please, I did not know." Zoe cried fearfully.

"I don't care! My son is gone at your hand, you should die, you should suffer, I should force you to suffer his fate. I should curse you, but… I won't." Artemis finished, she collapsed to the ground in grief, she began sobbing, "why? He suffered enough, I had only just got him back. Why did you take him away from me?!" She screamed.

"I'm sorry, I thought it was by thine command." Zoe said.

"What!?" Artemis cried.

"A voice commanded me, I thought thou had me do thine deed." Zoe spoke fearfully.

"A voice? Whose voice?" Artemis demanded.

"I don't know, I thought it was mine lady's, that this was thine will." Zoe said quickly.

"Who?" Artemis whispered to herself, she then looked back to her son's body only to find it missing. "Where is he?" She cried.

"How?" Zoe asked amazed, "he couldn't have survived." She said mournfully.

"No! He has to be alive, there is no other way!" Artemis said without much conviction.

She looked to where he lay and found tracks, and his clothes, the formed a trail. She began to follow it, but it suddenly ended, the tracks just stopped, as if what caused them simply vanished.

(Next day camp half-blood)

Four of the Jinchuuriki had made it to camp, Fu, Roshi, B and Yugito had made it and now they awaited the rest of their family. Suddenly Dionysus appeared in front of them all, he looked at them sadly, unlike the other heroes he knew they faced true hardships.

"Four of your siblings cannot come here, we may be able to find them but they will not be able to come here. It is something that we cannot explain to you, we do know that they are together though. As for the fifth, Artemis shall return soon." Artemis had disappeared last night, the hunters made their own way to camp after she left.

They waited for a while but and then Artemis appeared from the woods, she had tears in her eyes and held a bundle they all recognised. Behind her the hunter, Zoe, stood, fear on her face, the Jinchuuriki rushed to her and soon were in front of her. She held their brothers cloak, his mask lay atop it, it was sliced in half. The other hunters gathered around the two and saw the mask, they looked confused.

"Naruto, is gone." Artemis said, "she then looked to the hunters and said, my son is gone." They looked shocked, and started speaking, she silenced them. "I bore a child in another realm, I did not break my vow but I bore him. He was shot by my own lieutenant, someone commanded her to do it in my guise." The Jinchuuriki looked murderously at Zoe. "He may still live, but I cannot find him, his trail has disappeared."

"We need to find him, please." Yugito begged.

"I'm sorry, but he is gone, I don't know where but he will be found." Artemis said, "Zoe, for killing him you must be punished." Zoe looked scared, and the rest of the hunt protested, but she silenced them "you, the one who attacked him, shall be the one to find him, until the day he has been brought back you are no longer a member of my hunt." Zoe and many of the other hunters gasped, "I strip you of your title as lieutenant." Zoe looked like she had been shot, "and I curse you," Artemis voice seemed to echo these next words, "you shall walk the earth until my son reaches Olympus. His cloak will be your prison." The cloak in her hands seemed to gain life and flew at Zoe, it wrapped around her and covered her, "his mask your chains," the mask in her hands slowly flew towards her and she looked to be struggling to move beneath the cloak. Her face was shown briefly and the look of fear in her eyes caused pain in the hearts of both Artemis and her hunters but still the mask continued its journey. The two-halves touched her face and stayed there, "you shall keep your immortality. But if my son is not found then you shall wonder the earth till the end of time. The mortals shall not see you, the gods shall not help you, you will become a spectre."

Zoe had been given her task, she raised her head and her eyes could be seen for a moment, tears glistening in them. They showed her regret, but also acceptance. She then turned and left the camp, her footsteps unheard, she had become a ghost, a spirit, a spectre.

Before she could leave however the oracle came down from the attic, the mummified being shocked all those watching. It opened its green eyes and mouth and green smoke poured out, it then spoke, its raspy voice making all of them uncomfortable.

 _"The cursed huntress shall begin anew;_

 _To find the one by her hand, slew;_

 _Her future unknown and task made bleak;_

 _To succeed her quest nine, she must seek;_

 _They will be found with the heroes to come;_

 _No path is made, her but a trial has begun;_

 _For years, she shall search but the child is dead;_

 _No man can be found down the path he's been led."_

(On a hill near the camp)

Three old women sat on a hill, they looked down on the scene in front of them.

"This, is why they shouldn't be here, that prophecy has denied us, they are a danger to all." One of them spoke, "that boy in particular is the most dangerous. The prophecy, it speaks true of him though."

"He is not dead, he has done as the prophecy said." The second woman spoke.

"I do not think it was wise to interfere." The final figure said.

"Be silent Clotho, he should not live, he has power, too much power." The second figure said.

"But Lachesis, we are tempting the prophecy, even we are not above that." The now named Clotho said.

"Sisters by silent, that prophecy speaks dangerous of us, if it rings true then a mere mortal shall be able to do more than the gods, titans or even us." The first figure spoke.

"I understand, Atropos, but is it wise to, as the mortals say, tempt fate." Clotho asked.

"We are fate, this mortal mustn't be allowed to be more powerful than us." Lachesis said.

"We have set this fate for him; the prophecy allows us no more control." Atropos said.

"But why should we, the fates follow this prophecy?" Lachesis asked angrily.

"Because, we are the fates, we cannot go against prophecy, we would fade, we can do no more to harm this child. If we do, I fear for the consequences." Atropos said.

(On Olympus)

The Olympians watched as Artemis gave Zoe her punishment, they knew how hard it was on her, her lieutenant had killed her son. Her most trusted friend had taken away her first demi-god, they would probably have done much worse in her position.

Apollo wanted to go down and comfort his 'little sis' but he knew that he would do more harm than good by doing that. The prophecy was on all of their minds though, Hades had informed them that Naruto's soul hadn't entered the underworld. He was definitely still alive, but he probably would avoid anything to do with them, they had been told a brief overview of his life by Artemis but even she knew little, the Jinchuuriki would know more.

They felt bad about splitting them, unfortunately, Lupa had already taken the other four Jinchuuriki along with Kankuro and Temari. They would have to be kept apart, they knew of each of the camps at this point, it was too late to send them to either of the alternatives. For now, they would have to stay were the are bad things have happened when the two camps meet, that along with the Jinchuuriki there could lead to the end of the world.

They wondered where Naruto had gone though, Zeus had felt his presence in the sky for a time but he moved too fast and Zeus didn't know where he was. He would return eventually, but they hoped he would be on their side, the prophecy must refer to him, he was the ninth one. The other eight were powerful but the power he would eventually wield could lead to their very destruction. The fact that he lived spoke of him as the ninth one, frankly they were nervous, Hades especially, he was not one to be easily overcome.

(In a forest)

In a dark forest a young girl was sitting under a tree, this was neither the time nor the place a young girl about six or seven should be. It being near midnight and very far away from civilisation one must wonder why is this girl not at home with her family? There was a simple answer to that.

Annabeth had run away from her family, she had decided to do so yesterday and today she had finally done it. She was now in the woods, alone and scared. She had no one, she was completely alone.

Annabeth looked down at her torn grey t-shirt, it had caught on a branch as she ran from a monster and so had been torn. She looked down at her dirty jeans, covered in muck from tripping a while ago. Her usually sunny blonde hair had twigs knotted in it, coated in a layer of dirt, making it look like a bird's nest. Her striking grey eyes were filled with fear and darted around the forest searching for anything that would disrupt her quick stop to catch her breath.

Suddenly she heard a noise, she was scared, she looked at the bushes the noise came from. Something was coming out, she wanted to run but she was too tired, she stood there, fear gripping her heart. Suddenly, from the bushes a fox emerged, it had brilliant silver fur that seemed to shine in the moonlight, it froze and looked at her for a minute. It looked just as scared as she felt.

"H-h-hi, I'm Annabeth," Annabeth said, the fox looked at her, as if deciding if she was friend or foe.

Suddenly there was a sound from behind her, it was the sound of something growling, she turned and found a hellhound about the size of a small horse. She felt fear and closed her eyes when it pounced at her, she thought she would die. Suddenly she heard the hound grunt, it hadn't landed on her, she opened her eyes and found the fox, standing over the hellhound. It had pushed it back and had it on its back, it then bit into its throat and the hound burst into golden dust. The fox turned to her and looked curious, it then slowly made its way over to her, it sniffed her once and then came closer.

Annabeth wasn't afraid though, the fox had saved her life, she slowly brought her hand to the fox's head and he flinched away. The fox stopped flinching and she put her hands on his head and pet him slightly, she smiled, his fur felt soft, he purred slightly and walked closer to her. She then lifted him gently, he didn't protest and she set him in her lap, she then petted him gently for a few minutes, she stopped and felt tired. The fox looked up at her and saw how tired she looked, he then licked her face and jumped out of her arms, he then went into her pack and removed a blanket.

He wrapped Annabeth in the blanket and she smiled happily, she fell asleep quickly, leaning against a tree, the fox jumped up to her shoulder and wrapped a tail around her neck. He sat on her shoulder and purred happily, in his head he began to think, one question permeated his very being.

Who am I?

The little fox wouldn't find the answer anytime soon, he would be trapped as a fox for some time but he would learn. Already random words were coming through his head, he knew what some of them meant, 'mother' was good, 'hunter' was bad. He had a name to go with the hunter as well, 'Artemis' he would avoid that person as much as possible. Right now, he may not know who he was, but he knew who he was going to be, he was going to be the person who took care of this little girl.

He looked down on her sleeping face, maybe she knew who he was, he would ask when he woke up, but how? Hmm, Annabeth, that might be her name, maybe she could teach him to speak like she could. She could probably help him, if not then he would help her, he wrapped around her and she sighed in happiness, she reached for his head and patted him on the snout. He licked her hand affectionately and they both drifted off into sleep.

(Phoenix, Arizona)

Clarise la Rue sat in her back garden, she was angry, she had been caught fighting in school, again, and so had been grounded by her mother. She was forced to stay at home and wasn't aloud out of her houses boundaries. She had also lost all her toys so she was bored. She was sitting alone, she didn't have many friends, mostly because she beat up nearly everyone, for someone of only seven years that was quite an achievement.

Her brown hair was held back by a ponytail and she scowled at her mother's flower bed, a few scrapes adorned her face from the fight that got her in trouble. She looked down at the blood on her knuckles and smirked, that eleven-year-old hadn't known what hit him, rather he had, but after his face was introduced to her fist she wouldn't be surprised if she knocked whatever memory he had of the event out of his brain.

She heard a noise and turned around to see a small fox come out of the rose bush her mum had made. She looked at it curiously and it regarded her as well, it was silver and its fur looked soft, it came closer and she reached out to pet it. For once she didn't want to harm the poor animal, she only wanted to see how soft it was, she thought for a moment that sounded really girly but then squashed that thought. The fox reached out and licked her hand, it then hoped into her arms and licked her face, she giggled slightly, and the fox continued. His fur was so soft, she rubbed her hand in it and he purred slightly, she heard her mother call her name, she wanted her inside.

She was going to ask if she could keep her new friend, she would do anything, even stop fighting, he licked her again and she smiled. Her mother would love him anyway.

(Lotus Casino)

Nico and his sister had come to this casino and had been in there for a few weeks now, the lawyer who brought them here had left a while ago. Bianca was beginning to get impatient with her brother, he was always acting like an idiot and she had to take care of him a lot. Him and her were the only friends they had, they only had each other, Bianca wanted more friends or at least one who wouldn't ask to play stupid games with her all the time.

She sighed as she tugged her black hair out of its ponytail, looking in the mirror her dark eyes stared back. Her Italian heritage still showed, even if her tan had disappeared from staying inside for three weeks? A month? How long had she been here? She wondered to herself as she brushed her hair.

She was in her room alone, her brother had gone downstairs, probably to annoy someone, she heard something out her window. She opened it and looked out, the view of Vegas was boring at this point, the lights, colours and foxes dangling from the windowsills… wait what? There was a fox holding on for dear life on her window, how it got there she didn't know but she knew that she had to help it.

She pulled it up and it jumped into her chest, it was shacking in fright and she hugged him tight, he calmed down slightly. He looked up slightly and saw the face of his saviour, he looked at her curiously before he gave her one big lick on the nose. She giggled a bit and smiled, she had her wish granted, she had her friend.

(In a forest)

Thalia had left her mother, she had taken away her brother, she couldn't stay there anymore, her brother was gone. She had, after a day or two alone come across another demi-god by the name of Luke, they had been fighting monsters ever since. Unfortunately, they had been separated in one of their fights against a rather vicious dracnae, they had been chased by four at the start but a jab from her electric spear took out one while Luke's trusty golf club caved another's skull. The third was struck by a bolt of lightning that nearly hit Luke, she was so terrified by how close she had come to her friend that she missed the final snake lady as she pounced.

The woman grabbed Thalia and they were launched to the edge of the cliff she had not realised was there. Note for the future, the forests close to cliffs were just a bad idea. So, the dracnae had her in its clutches and there was nothing she could do, fortunately Luke saved her, hitting the snake in the back, causing her to loosen her grip. Thalia moved her hand and stabbed the dracnae in the stomach and watched as it disintegrated, before it was fully gone though, it grinned maliciously and shoved the daughter of Zeus.

She stumbled backwards, right off the cliff. She managed to grab a rock protruding from the side of the cliff, she looked up and saw the son of Hermes at the edge of the cliff reaching desperately to grab her hand. She could tell it would be no use, there was at least a meter between his hand and her, so she held onto the rock desperately with one hand and her spear in her other. Wait her spear!

She called out to Luke, telling him what to do, she then reached up with her spear and pointed it to him, he grabbed the shaft and started pulling. With that false sense of security, she did something stupid. She looked down.

Now, before then she didn't fear heights, her father was the god of the sky, what did she have to fear? Unfortunately, looking down she felt the natural survival instinct ingrained in humans flare up and scream hold tight to something not moving. She complied and held onto the rock as tightly as she could and let go of her spear, holding onto her grip with both hands. She vaguely heard Luke calling down to her, telling her to grab onto the spear, but she was too busy looking down and wondering how big a splat she would make if she fell.

Suddenly, with no warning, the rock she was holding onto moved, it slid out of its earthy surroundings and time seemed to slow. She watched as the rock gave way and fell to the ground, she desperately tried to grab another rock but nothing could be gripped. She started falling.

She looked up and saw Luke, his panicked eyes staring at her in horror the spear still outstretched. She made a mad reach for it, but it was too late, as she fell she noticed Luke seemed to get smaller and smaller. She looked down and saw she was about twenty feet above the tree-tops.

Suddenly she remembered something, she was a daughter of the sky god, he ruled over the winds, maybe she could control them like she did lightning. She focused and imagined the winds stopping her fall. She felt a gust of wind, it pushed her and her descent slowed. Ten feet. She was still falling, but much slower, she tried to slow her fall again. This time she knew it worked, she opened her eyes and saw that she was about a foot above the nearest treetop. It felt like she was floating down, as she reached the tree she grabbed onto it, and her control of the winds left her.

She was now on top of a rather tall pine. She looked up and saw a small figure that must have been Luke at the edge of the cliff, she waved at him and he waved back. She then began to make her way down the tree, slowly, she was about ten feet off the ground when a branch gave way and she was once again falling. This time, time didn't slow down. It was over in seconds.

As she fell she felt every tree hit her, scraping her arms, legs and face, she hit the ground hard and felt the air leave her lungs painfully. She lay there for a few minutes felling like every muscle in her body had turned to stone, when she did manage to move she sat up and inspected herself for broken bones. There were none, but she still felt like all of them were.

She managed to stand and leaned against a tree for support, she then set off, in the hopes of finding a road, or path or something. Walking was agony but she had to get out of here, it was dark now, too dark to see, she sat down beneath a tree and shivered. Why had she left her jacket in her bag? Where was her bag? She vaguely remembered dropping it when she stabbed the dracnae, so Luke might have it. He also had her spear, her food, her water and her torch, she really shouldn't have dropped her bag. Now she was alone in a freezing forest with no food, no jacket and no weapons.

She heard a twig snap and turned to face the noise, what was it? Monster? God? Luke? Some random mortal? She heard another twig snap and felt terror grip her, if a monster struck now she'd be easy pickings, after summoning the lightning to hit the dracnae, the wind to slow her fall, fought four dracnae and hit the ground she was in no state to fight anything. Her heart sped up and she waited for whatever it was to attack.

The forest was silent for what felt like an eternity, before another sound was heard, a rustle in the canopy above her. What was it? Eventually after what felt like forever it was revealed to be an owl. She felt like laughing at being afraid of the owl and breathed deeply before looking back at the owl. The owl stared at her with calculating grey eyes, for some reason she felt like this owl was worse than any monster, like it could kill her in a moment. The owl's scrutinising gaze lingered, seeming to look straight through the young demi-god.

Suddenly it hit her, "Athena." She blurted out, the owl didn't answer her question, simply stared at her, analysing her. Finally, the owl took off and flew around Thalia before picking a direction and flying that way. Thalia stayed put for a minute before the owl hooted at her, she found her voice and asked, "do you want me to follow you?" The owl hooted, and she took that as a yes. She followed the owl, not knowing where she was going, this went on for a few minutes, reminding Thalia of when she followed her father's goat.

Eventually Thalia burst through the trees and found herself in a clearing, she stared around the clearing until her gaze fell on an old log cabin. Not the kind of comfortable cabins with smoke from a chimney and a light in the window, no. This cabin was ripped straight out of evil dead, a movie Thalia had watched while her mother was passed out drunk and had left the TV on. There was one visible door which was open, revealing only the darkness within, there were no windows and the wood looked rotten. The entire place looked so old it looked like even the squirrels had forgotten it existed.

The owl landed on top of the doorway and gazed at her intently, she was about to ask if the owl wanted her to go in there when the owl flew away into the night sky. So, she was alone again. Eventually, she decided that it would be safer away from the cold and entered the cabin, the inside was worse than the outside there was a hole on one side of the wall allowing branches to snake in. Apparently, she was wrong as it looked like animals did use this place, squirrel droppings were littered all over the floor and the entire place reeked of rot.

She went over to the cleanest looking corner and tried to get comfortable, an impossible achievement, so she settled for the closest she could and tried to sleep. If she had looked outside she would have seen a beautiful woman look at the cabin distastefully.

"Father just can't help himself," she muttered, "it could be worse though, our fate could be in the hands of some sea-spawn." She muttered darkly, elsewhere in Montauk a young boy with black hair sneezed. "For now, I need to make sure Roshi made it to camp okay, good thing it was Artemis who found her, imagine one of Lupa's pack bringing him to New Rome." She spat, her form shifting for a second before turning into an owl and flying off.

Thalia tried drifting off but simply couldn't, she ended up thinking about her situation, alone, in pain and unarmed. Stray thoughts of monsters attacking plagued her mind and she couldn't help it. She cried to herself.

Her ears perked up at the noise from outside the house, she felt fear grip her once more. She got to her feet, trying to get ready for a fight. A shadow loomed in front of the doorway, casting a deep silhouette from the moonlight, she looked whimpering slightly. In the doorway stood… a fox, it looked at her, then it yipped happily, it walked over to her, and patted her leg with a paw. She lifted him up and he licked her face, she groaned and wiped her face on her shirt before turning back to the fox. She broke of a stick from the cabins only other resident and threw it out the door, she expected the fox to get it but it just looked at her like she was stupid.

"Stupid mutt." She muttered, the fox just yipped back.

"Stupid." It said happily.

Before she could question the foxes speaking capabilities, she heard a grunt coming from outside, "I can smell her, a demi-god and a powerful one at that." A voice said, Thalia flinched back, she was cornered, weapon less and completely exhausted, both physically and mentally. A cyclops entered the cabin and smiled at her with a vicious gleam in its eyes. "Well, well, well, a little demi-god." Then it lunged at her, she flinched expecting her death, when nothing happened she opened her eyes and saw that the cyclops had stopped moving. It then exploded into golden dust, there was only a small fox sitting in its place, it yipped happily at her.

"Stupid." It yipped, and she was shocked.

After a while she found her voice, "Ya know what, I think you should stay." She said her electric blue eyes stared into the equally blue orbs of the fox.

"Stay." The fox mimicked and she smiled, the fox seemed to take that as an invitation to hop onto her shoulder. It wrapped itself around her neck, his tail brushed over her freckled nose tickling slightly and she brushed it off where it landed on her choppy black hair. He felt like a pillow, a really warm, soft, fluffy pillow, she slowly drifted off comfortably, a small grin on her normally scowling face.

(New York)

Percy Jackson hated his step-dad, he was always mean to him and his mom, which was why he loved when he and his mom went to the cabin in Montauk. He loved it here, but he and his mom were leaving today, he was sad, he loved it here on the beach, just him and his mom. Not his mother's new husband Gabe, he hated him.

He looked on the beach one last time and heard a noise, it was like a dog barking. He turned and saw a silver fox standing there, he looked surprised, suddenly it went over to him and licked his hand. He giggled lightly at that and then pet the fox on the head, it moved into his hand and Percy happily pet the young creature. He heard his mother calling him and turned to see her at the car ready to go, he turned back to the fox, he realised he couldn't come with him. Gabe would never allow it.

He made his way to the car and the fox sadly watched him leave, he knew that he would not be able to take him home. Maybe the fox would wait for him to come back to the cabin again, next time they would be friends.

(On Circe's Island)

Reyna was watching the sea, she had recently made it to this island and was sad, her sister and she had escaped here after her dad… She didn't want to think about it anymore. Circe had been nice to them and had allowed them to stay here, she and her sister were happy, this would be their home. Why did it hurt so much though? Her dad… she missed him so much.

Hylla wasn't as close to her as she used to be, she was now their mistress best attendant and was very busy. Circe had grown very close to her. She was a bit jealous of her sister and right now she was nervous, she wasn't as good as her sister, sure she was younger but she felt she could be a better attendant.

She heard a noise behind her and turned to see a fox, she hadn't seen it before so how had it made its way onto the island? It had silver fur and she immediately wanted to touch it, she put her hand forward and placed it on the fox's nose, it licked her appreciatively. She giggled, and then petted him, she knew from that moment on that he would be her friend, he would help her and make her feel better. He would be there for her when her sister wouldn't be.

(In the Dare household)

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was in her enormous garden playing with one of her toys, she was very happy right now. She didn't have many friends but that didn't matter much, she had her daddy and he was so nice to her, he gave her anything she wanted. She heard a noise from the bushes nearby and turned, she found a young fox looking back at her looking curious. They stared at each other for a bit before Rachel giggled, she then moved towards the young fox and stood closer to him.

He leaned forward a bit and licked her on her nose, she giggled even more, now she had a friend. She would have to ask her daddy to let him stay with them but she was sure he would let her keep him. She smiled happily when the fox licked her again and petted him on the nose.

(In the McLean household)

Piper was happy, she and her father had just spent the night looking at the stars, he had told her of Greek legends and her Grandfather's stories. She was happy, she thought of shiny hedgehogs and giggled slightly, she heard a small yip from behind her and turned around, she was about to go inside.

She saw something amazing, at least to her young, story addled mind. She saw a shiny silver fox, just staring at her, she was surprised, did this mean that her grandfather's stories were true, were there other silver animals? She walked over to it and it walked over to her slowly, it then jumped up and licked her in the face, she giggled. Wait until her father saw him.

(On Olympus)

"I'm sorry Artemis." Zeus said as his daughter arrived on Olympus.

"This is all my fault." Artemis said through tears.

"It's not, it is most likely the work of the fates." Hera said, sounding almost… remorseful? "even they must fear him, especially since it is clear that he is the ninth. The one in that prophecy."

"It is true, the prophecy itself is one of the clearest ones I've ever heard, but that makes it more terrifying, especially now that he's… well you know." Apollo said, wincing at the end.

"We shall hope that Zoe succeeds in her quest." Athena said, "if not it could be disastrous."

"That is true, which is why it is more important that the great prophecy doesn't happened any time soon." Hestia said, Zeus flinched slightly but only one god noticed.

"And we're sure that they can't be part of the prophecy, I mean they're all younger now." Demeter said.

"No." Athena said, "the prophecy for them makes it clear that it is not."

"Fine, then this meeting is over, we shall claim our children tomorrow and have Chiron explain to them as best he can the situation." Zeus decided.

"Agreed." They all said.

As they were leaving Apollo couldn't help but think over the prophecy he had been given.

 _"Nine powerful warriors shall appear;_

 _Born in a realm to the gods unclear;_

 _Those who are one to eight;_

 _Their lives shall be out of the hands of fate;_

 _No part in any prophecy they shall take;_

 _They all shall be split until he's awake;_

 _The ninths power shall be coveted;_

 _Strength of the wind and cruel truth hid;_

 _He shall be desired by all you see;_

 _He will defy fate, death and prophecy;_

 _His death breathe life into nine;_

 _His return reveals truth divine;_

 _This one born, alone will be the one;_

 _To see Olympus rise, or be undone."_


	25. Chapter 25

(With Annabeth)

Annabeth had woken up to a comfortable feeling, she remembered meeting the fox last night maybe he left her. She woke up and looked around nervously, she couldn't see him anywhere, she felt sad, her friend had left her alone again. She sat up and pulled her blanket off, she then reached up for the scarf around her neck, wait… she didn't have a scarf. She reached up around her neck and found something very soft clinging to her, she grabbed it and pulled it off her, she heard it make a small bark in disagreement but soon found herself looking at the eyes of the small fox.

"Hello, thank you for helping me yesterday." Annabeth said, "do you have a name?"

The fox looked at her, then tilted his head slightly, she giggled at that and then set him down.

"No, I guess you need a name now." Annabeth pondered it for a minute. The fox sat in her lap and eyed her curiously, it then reached up at her and licked her nose, "stop it." She giggled. "What should I call you?"

The fox then looked up at her and opened its mouth, it then shocked Annabeth's young mind, "Ann-anna…" It began, "Annnnnabe…" It was struggling but had nearly made it, "Annnnabeet" It said proudly, "Annabet" It then scrunched up its face a little bit, "Annabet?" It asked inquisitively.

"Annabeth." Annabeth corrected, shocked that the fox could speak, "you can speak?" She asked amazed.

"Annabethhhh." The fox struggled, "Annabeth." It finally managed, she smiled at him and he grinned back before saying "Annabeth," repeatedly. She smiled at that and petted him affectionately on the head.

"Can you say anything else?" Annabeth asked, they fox looked confused for a minute.

"Annabeth?" He tried, it didn't work.

"Well, how about I teach you to speak better?" Annabeth asked, "it's the least I can do, you saved me after all."

The fox clearly didn't know what she was saying but agreed with a positive, "Annabeth." He gave a swift nod to highlight this more.

Annabeth giggled at the fox, "ok, try saying yes, Y-E-S." She spoke clearly.

"Yeash." The fox tried, tilting his head to the side.

"Yes." Annabeth corrected.

"Yeas." The fox tried then frowned slightly, "yess" he smiled a bit more before trying once more, "yes." He then smiled cutely at the young child.

"Well done." Annabeth praised and patted him on the head lightly, "come on, I think we had better get a move on." Annabeth said, nervously glancing around the trees.

"Yes." The fox replied.

"As for a name, I think I'll call you… Foxy?" Annabeth asked, the fox shook a negative, "silver?" another negative, "how about… Whiskers?" The fox contemplated this one and eventually agreed. "Well then Whiskers, let's go." Annabeth said and they went off, further into the woods.

They eventually came to a river and both stopped to get a drink, Annabeth had taught her new companion how to speak and he was taking to it relatively quickly. He had learned the basics and could understand some of what Annabeth was saying, she mostly just pointed things out to him and said what they were, he then attempted to say them until he got it right. They made it to a small town, the sign said something like Administrate, but her dyslexia might have been acting up. For some reason though no one passing them seemed to care that the fox was talking which seemed weird to Annabeth.

They were now going through a park in one of the small towns, Annabeth wanted to play on the swings and since her vulpine companion didn't seem to disagree, they went there. Annabeth sat on one swing while Whiskers struggled to stay on the other, he seemed happy though, he got off the swing and decided to try to push Annabeth. He jumped and pushed on the swing, the seven-year-old giggled at the height she got from the swing and he kept jumping to push the swing. Eventually, he got tired and lay down on the ground beside the swings, Annabeth got tired and decided it was time to leave, it was getting dark now and monsters would be coming out soon.

She shivered at the thought of the monsters that had been chasing her, she ran away because her dad and step-mom were always mean to her. She didn't like her step-brothers either, they never played with her, but now she had Whiskers, he would play with her now. She remembered what her dad said, it was all her mom's fault, before she left he told her what she was, after that the monsters started attacking more often. Her dad and step-mom would get angry at her and blame her, and they didn't believe her most of the time, especially about the spiders.

Spiders always scared her, they would always sneak in when she was asleep and bite her, she hated it, and her dad would never believe her. She looked at Whiskers and smiled when he looked up at her, he then yawned widely and she felt tired as well, maybe they could find a safe place to sleep. She soon found a bench to lie on and sat down on it, and then went into her bag and pulled out her blanket which she then wrapped around herself. Whiskers hopped to her shoulder and curled his tail around her protectively, he licked her face and then wrapped his tail around her. It seemed to grow longer than a tail like that had any right to be, but he put it behind her head like a pillow, he then sat beside her and fell asleep.

She woke up in the middle of the night to the feeling she always hated, the spiders had found her again. One of them was now on her leg and had bit her, she jumped up in fear and swatted at the beast, she woke up her startled friend when she jumped. He looked at her curiously and then growled when he saw the spiders, there were only a few now. He jumped up and swiped at them, they seemed to be scared of him and fled in terror of being squashed by the creature.

Whiskers then went over to Annabeth and licked her face, she stopped looking so scared and smiled at the fox. "Thank you," she said, "I don't like spiders." She said.

"Sp-spidrs… bad." Whiskers agreed,

"Yeah, spiders are bad." Annabeth said.

Whiskers looked up, he saw the moon shining down and smiled at it, "Annabeth… what that?" Naruto asked, she had taught him that question so he could say when he didn't know things.

Annabeth looked up at the moon and smiled, "that's the moon." She said, "it looks like your fur." She commented.

"Like… moon." Whiskers said happily.

"Yeah, me too." Annabeth said.

"Annabeth… sleep?" Whiskers asked her.

"Yeah, let's go back to sleep." They then went back to the bench and went back under the blanket, now though, Annabeth wrapped her arm around whiskers back and held him to her face.

The next morning the two of them awoke to the sound of the birds chirping, they looked around the park and decided to get a move on. Annabeth was hungry now and decided to try to get some food, she didn't have much money left though so she went to the nearest shop and tried to buy something for her and Whiskers to eat. She managed to get some sandwiches but only had a few dollars left, she gave one of the sandwiches to Whiskers who happily ate away while she ate hers slowly. She sighed when her stomach growled and Whiskers seemed to notice how hungry she was, though she tried to hide it from her friend.

"Annabeth… need… food." Whiskers said, finding it hard to put all the words together right.

"No, I'm fine, we may need this money for later." Annabeth replied.

"Mon-nay?" Whiskers asked, he was getting better at finding the words, "need… money?"

"Yeah, we're running out of it." Annabeth said sadly.

"Where… money?" Whiskers asked.

"People have it, it looks like this, I don't suppose you have any?" She asked jokingly.

"No… but… people, have it?" Whiskers said with a grin.

"Yeah…" Annabeth didn't understand.

"I… back… quick." Whiskers said and then left Annabeth alone, a few minutes later the fox reappeared with something in his mouth. "People… money." He said with a grin and dumped a small purse down at Annabeth's feet.

"Where did you get this?" Annabeth asked, confused for a minute it before it clicked, "you stole it?" She asked shocked.

"Stool?" Whiskers asked confused.

"Stole, it means you took it off someone." Annabeth said.

"Yes… stole." Whiskers said happily.

"You can't steal things!" Annabeth exclaimed, the fox looked confused.

"Why… Annabeth… not… happy?" Whiskers asked confused.

"You can't steal it's wrong." Annabeth said.

"Why? People have… Annabeth not." Whiskers said.

"Because it's wrong." Annabeth said, "how would you feel if someone stole from us?"

"Us… have… none." Whiskers said sadly, "people… have."

"But it isn't right, please don't steal." Annabeth asked.

"…Yes… Whiskers… no steal… Annabeth happy?" Whiskers asked.

"Thank you, though I think we should keep this… now that we have it there's no use giving it away." Annabeth said, Whiskers looked confused.

"Annabeth… stole?" He asked.

"No, I'm just… keeping it." Annabeth finished.

"Annabeth… happy?" He asked again.

"Yeah, I'm happy." Annabeth said and Whiskers grinned, so long as she was happy.

"Annabeth… need… food." The fox said and Annabeth's stomach grumbled in agreement.

"Fine." She went back to the shop and grabbed two more sandwiches, apparently the person Whiskers got the purse from was rich. Annabeth started on her sandwich and handed the other two Whiskers, he shook his head in a negative fashion.

"Whiskers… no hungry… Annabeth hungry… Annabeth food." Whiskers said.

"But you need to eat too." Annabeth said.

"Whiskers… umm." He couldn't find the word in his rather small vocabulary, he tried to mime out small with his tail and front paws.

"Small?" Annabeth guessed.

"Small… Annabeth… not small… Annabeth need food." Whiskers said.

"…Fine." Annabeth finally conceded.

She then ate both sandwiches and they left the area, they were travelling all day, Annabeth teaching Whiskers new words as they went on. They soon found their way to another small forest and made a camp when they noticed the sun setting, Annabeth started shivering and Whiskers put the blanket around her. He then crawled in and sat in her lap, Annabeth snuggled into him and found him to be very warm, he felt like a hot water bottle and they eventually fell asleep.

(Next morning)

Annabeth awoke to find that she felt warmer and more comfortable than she had since she left her home. She looked down to find her companion was still asleep, he kept her warm all night and no spiders bothered her, she was happy with that. She was so glad she met her new friend, she didn't know what would have happened if he wasn't here, she would be starving for certain anyway.

Her companion followed her in waking up, yawning and stretching in her lap, she just smiled at the cute creature waking up.

"Morning." Annabeth said happily.

"Morning." Whiskers replied, now much better at speaking the new language.

"Where do we go now?" Annabeth asked, hoping her friend could find somewhere safe for them.

"Where?" The fox replied.

"I don't suppose you would know anywhere safe, would you?" Annabeth asked.

"Say-f?" The fox questioned.

"Yeah, it means somewhere where no one will try to hurt us." Annabeth said.

"Annabeth… safe… Whiskers... make safe." The fox tried.

"Thank you, but we need a new home, somewhere to stay." Annabeth tried.

"Whiskers… stay… Annabeth." Whiskers said fearfully, he thought the young child was leaving him.

"You're coming with me." Annabeth said, "we need somewhere for both of us to be safe."

"Whiskers… safe… Annabeth… Whiskers… umm… word?" Whiskers asked.

"Protect." Annabeth said, smiling at the young fox.

"Whiskers… pro-tect… Annabeth." Whiskers said with a grin.

"Thanks, well, let's go find somewhere we can get food." Annabeth said.

"Annabeth… food… Whiskers… find food… Annabeth… money… food… Whiskers… umm?" Whiskers tried.

"You want to get your own food?" Annabeth asked, where would the fox find food her naive mind questioned.

"Yes… Whiskers… no money." Whiskers said.

"Fine, for now I'll go put all the stuff away, you go find your own food." Annabeth said, still wondering where he would find food. The fox left her quickly and she set to work putting all her stuff away, she then counted how much money she had, one hundred and fifty dollars and ten cents. She looked up when she heard her friend return but was shocked by the sight in front of her, Whiskers had a brown rabbit held by the throat in his jaws.

Whiskers dropped the rabbit and it fell limply, "Whiskers… hunt." Whiskers remembered that word, one of the few he knew as bad, unless he did it. "Big… food." He seemed to grin, there was a little blood on his mouth and he looked ferocious, his teeth seemed much bigger.

"Whiskers…" Annabeth was horrified, she was seven sure she had been on the run but she hadn't ever seen anything die except for the monster Whiskers saved her from, "w-why did you k-k-kill the bunny?" She asked.

"Bunny… tasty..." Whiskers admired his kill, he then looked up at Annabeth, "Annabeth... want… food?"

Annabeth felt green at that, sure she knew he was a fox but she didn't think he would kill anything, when she was in school one of her teachers had said that some animals eat other. She didn't particularly understand that then. "No thanks." She finally managed to get out. Whiskers shrugged and then bit into the rabbit, eating it raw he happily finished the rabbit and Annabeth watched in morbid fascination.

"I'm going to go find some f-food for me to eat." Annabeth said.

Whiskers had finished his meal and looked up at her, he then smiled slightly, "Whiskers… come." They then began their track, Annabeth hungry and Whiskers happily walking besides her, they soon came out of the forest and into a small town. They found a shop and Annabeth grabbed some sandwiches, enough to last the next few day, and put them in her bag. They then set off again, Annabeth, nibbling on a sandwich, sent her companion wary looks, she was still freaked out from seeing him eat that rabbit like that.

They decided, with a little coaxing from Annabeth that they needed to find a safer place to live in, maybe an abandoned house or something. They were 'discussing' this, with Annabeth saying ideas and Whiskers trying to understand the words, when they came across a factory, that looked abandoned. Annabeth tried to read the sign but it was something she had great difficulty doing as she was dyslexic, but eventually worked the name out to be 'Richmond Ironworks'. She decided that they could stay here, at least until they came up with a better plan.

They moved the materials and tools that were abandoned there and managed to make a semi-comfortable bed for Annabeth using some corrugated iron. She looked outside and saw that it was getting dark out, she decided to teach her friend a bit more about the language. They sat there with Annabeth teaching him more new words in English and him practicing them and what he already knew. Eventually the moon was out and they guessed it was time for Annabeth to go to sleep, Whiskers got her to lay on her new bed and she looked exhausted.

"Whiskers… hungry… hunt… back soon." Whiskers said, causing Annabeth to panic a little bit.

"Please don't go." Annabeth pleaded.

"Back soon." Whiskers tried to placate her, "Annabeth… wait here… not scared."

"Fine," she said nervously, "but please, hurry and be back soon." Whiskers nodded and left quickly.

Annabeth was again alone, she looked around the room nervously, she palmed the hammer that she had been using before Whiskers came. She sat there listening for any noise at all. Eventually she heard her companion coming back, she saw him carrying a small squirrel by the scruff of its neck. He set it down and offered some to her once again, again she denied, slightly disgusted and he began to eat. Once he was done Annabeth offered him some water which he awkwardly took from the bottle that she used to give him, he then hopped up beside her and curled up against her. They soon drifted off into a comfortable sleep, both happy with their partner.

(Next morning)

Whiskers woke up and stretched slightly he looked at his new friend and smiled, she was still asleep, he licked her nose and she woke up giggling. She looked at her companion and smiled, Annabeth got one of the sandwiches she still had out from her bag and Whiskers went out to hunt for breakfast. He returned with a rabbit again, this time Annabeth just looked away as he devoured the poor innocent creature.

Today they decided to plan what their next move would be, the factory kept the worst of the weather off them. So far though, they had got nowhere, neither of them had any idea what to do so in the end Annabeth just continued teaching Naruto how to speak better. He now had a larger vocabulary, and could, say clearer sentences, he had been happy with this improvement and Annabeth was happy to see the fox happy.

They spent the next week like this, Whiskers hunting in the morning and Annabeth going to the nearest shop to get her food. Unfortunately they were running out of money surprisingly quickly, in the past week they were nearly fifty dollars down, Whiskers had helped her though. He somehow knew how to make a fire and began to cook his kills to give some of it to Annabeth, she didn't particularly want it but knew that she would eventually have to do it to save their money.

She, surprisingly, enjoyed the taste of rabbit and Whiskers had put more effort into hunting that creature. Unfortunately more monsters started showing up, Annabeth had managed to kill a few of the smaller ones but in the end Whiskers kept saving her. She wanted to be stronger, but Whiskers always protected her, he made sure that she didn't face any of the tougher monsters and she only fought when they overran her friend.

(With Thalia and Luke)

Thalia had stayed in the cabin that night with her new companion, the next morning they went out looking for Luke, well Thalia did, the fox just followed. Along the way Thalia decided to name her new friend Parrot, all he did was repeat everything she said, which she found oddly endearing. They had eventually found Luke who, after being introduced, seemed to hit it off with their new 'mascot' as he called him.

The next few days had been a blur, they fought monsters, resupplied, ran into some more monsters and found out their new companion preferred his food to be fresh. Occasionally still twitching.

For the past three days though all of them were following a goat. Maybe there should be a bit more context to that, they were following a magical goat. That still sounds weird. They were following a magic goat that glowed, nursed gods and had an ice dispenser. There's no way I can make this sound natural.

The goat, Amaltheia, had nursed Zeus and had guided Thalia before, having been the reason she and Luke had met. She explained this as they hid from the teleporting goat.

"When Amaltheia appears, something important is about to happen… something dangerous. She comes as like a warning, or a guide." Thalia explained.

"Eat Amatea?" Parrot asked.

Thalia became very pale, "no!" She yelped, "we aren't going to eat her."

Parrot looked thoughtful, "I eat Amatea?"

"No, no one is going to eat Amaltheia." Thalia said firmly.

"Why?" Thalia regretted teaching him that word.

"We just can't." She said, glancing at the goat as if to see if she had overheard them. She then seemed to realise something, "she's not disappearing. Maybe we're close."

Looking at the goat it was clear that it wasn't normal, she had the horns of a ram but the udders of a female goat. Her fur was glowing grey, Luke took a moment and turned back to look at their own animal companion, who also sometimes looked like he was glowing, specifically at night.

"Hey, Parrot," he said gaining the attention of his companions, "are you related to her?"

The fox looked surprised before narrowing his eyes, "no, not goat, am Parrot." Luke was about to point out that he was actually a fox but Thalia grabbed his wrist and gave him a look that said shut up.

"Come on, let's go talk to her." She said.

"Wait, aren't we hiding from her?" Luke asked and was quickly ignored and dragged away, Parrot followed and they were standing in front of a goat who ignored them in favour of eating the grass. They were standing beneath the monument to Robert E. Lee, staring at a glowing goat, a strange situation for anyone be they mortal, demigod or god.

Thalia knelt down next to the goat and softly spoke, "Amaltheia?" The goat turned its sad amber eyes to Thalia, showing off her bronze collar that softly glowed with her fur, must be celestial bronze. Her udders were strange, each had a Greek word tattooed to it, reading a strange variety of flavours: Nectar, milk, water, Pepsi, diet mountain dew and apparently an ice dispenser. Parrot was apparently in the mood for milk as his nose slowly darted towards that teat, apparently unnoticed by the goat with the glowing coat. Thalia however did notice and flicked him on the nose before he could get a drink.

He tried using his big eyes to get his way, which would have normally worked, even Thalia gave into those big blue eyes. Unfortunately now she managed to supress the urge to let him do what he wanted and then hug him as tightly as possible, as she glared at him for a second and he just looked down sadly, looking like a kicked puppy. She then turned back to the glowing goat who just watched with no reaction, "Amaltheia, what do you want? Did my father send you?"

The goat looked at Luke, like she was annoyed by his presence, he took a step back and looked ready to reach for his deadly golf club. "Thalia," Luke said, "are you sure this goat is from your dad?"

"She's immortal," Thalia said, "when Zeus was a baby, his mom, Rhea hid him in a cave-"

"Because Kronos wanted to eat him?" Luke asked.

She nodded, "so this goat, Amaltheia, looked after baby Zeus in his cradle, she nursed him."

"On diet mountain dew?"

"What?" Thalia asked with a frown.

"Read the udders, the goat has five flavours plus an ice dispenser."

The goat bleated in annoyance and Thalia patted her head, "it's okay, he didn't mean to insult you. Why have you led us here, Amaltheia? Where do you want me to go?"

The goat head butted the base of the statue and the general moved his right arm, causing the demi-gods to panic, fortunately it just pointed to a rather haunted looking house, overgrown with ivy and a charcoal coloured door.

"It wants us to go in there?" Luke asked

The goat nodded with a bleat and Thalia touched the horns, "thank you, Amaltheia. I-I trust you." Suddenly the goat was covered in a mini storm cloud, lightning flickered and when the cloud vanished, the goat had too.

Parrot moaned, "want milk." He muttered under his breath, Thalia and Luke ignored him.

"Are you sure about this?" Luke asked.

"Amaltheia leads me to good things. The last time she appeared, she led me to you." She said and Luke grinned like a loon.

"Led to me?" Parrot asked, Thalia looked thoughtful before she replied.

"No, an owl led me to you." Parrot looked chuffed.

With that they made their way to the creepy mansion. As they approached the door they noticed the brass door knocker was shaped like Medusa, the porch creaked under the weight of even the small fox's footsteps and the windows were grimy.

Thalia knocked. No answer, so she jiggled the handle. Locked. She looked at Luke expectantly and asked, "can you do your thing?"

"I hate doing my thing." He muttered but put his hand to the door, after a few seconds it clicked open and he swung the door open.

The interior was about as creepy as you would think, a chandelier made of what looked like recycled celestial bronze weapons. Two hallways led off to either side and the back wall held a staircase. The floor was smeared with grime and other… unsettling stains, the chairs were splinters and the one couch had its insides introduced to the outside world. At the base of the stairs a pile of random debris was lying there, cans, bottles and bones, human bones.

Luke started speaking but the door slammed shut behind them, Luke turned and tried everything to open it, but it wouldn't budge, not even to his son of Hermes tricks. "Some kind of magic," Luke said, "we're trapped."

Thalia ran to a window, Parrot on her heels and tried to pull the drapes, but the fabric wrapped around her hands. "Luke!" she screamed as the curtains became sheets of oily sludge, like tongues oozing up her arms and covering her spear. Parrot grabbed a piece of what used to be a chair and threw it at the drapes, hard enough for them to hear the window on the other side smash. The drapes recoiled and Thalia was free, but dropped her spear in shock, it landed on the floor and smoke came from it, like it had been dipped in acid.

Parrot growled at the drape and they looked at Thalia's blistering arms, she started to go into shock but Luke poured the last of their nectar onto Thalia's hands, healing them. Luke comforted her but Parrot looked around the room, Thalia began panicking, but Parrot spoke up.

"I find way out. You stay." He then made his way to the corridor on the right, he then backed up, after seeing a pair of glowing red eyes, "not that way." He scrambled to the left but found another pair, they lunged at him with a clacking sound.

"Parrot!" Thalia yelped, going to lift up the fox. "Up the stairs!" She yelled to Luke.

A man's voice suddenly called out to them "Yes, take the stairs." He sounded sad. "hurry." To the right the creature seemed to echo the same voice, "hurry." Then from the left echoed, they bolted for the stairs, no other options showing themselves. As they ran Parrot jumped from Thalia's arms and sat on her head facing backwards. Ahead the voice told them to take the last door on the left, the creatures echoing his voice, they were right behind them, they wouldn't make it, so Parrot decided to do something stupid. Just before the monsters caught up, he jumped from Thalia's head and lunged at the monsters.

Thalia and Luke fell into the room as the door opened for them, and shut immediately after their entrance, locking Parrot on the other side. Thalia registered this first and shot up reaching for the door trying desperately to open it, ignoring the strange old man residing in the room.

"Parrot!" She yelled at the door resorting to banging on it with her fists, outside the sounds of the creatures and the unmistakable yips of the fox continued. There was a crash and the sound of the clacking of hooves the creatures seemed to make, then there was silence. Thalia turned her horrified gaze back into the room and stared at the man who introduced himself as Hal.

(Outside the room)

Parrot had landed on the head of one of the creatures, or at least he assumed so, it looked like a mix between a horse and a wolf but had no teeth. Instead it had what looked like two horse-shoes in its mouth, making the clacking noise every time it snapped its teeth.

Parrot was acting on instinct as he kicked off the creature's head just in time to avoid the other one bite down on his friend's nose. It didn't do much damage but it did force the creature to stop glaring at Parrot, he vaguely heard Thalia calling out his name and the door she fell through banging but he was a bit preoccupied living. He had seconds to think up a plan, so he tried to learn everything about this situation and analyse it.

He stared down the two enormous (to him) creatures and glanced around the corridor, the only things other than the creatures were a few piles of bones. Ignoring them he looked around to see if any of the doors were open. Nope. All of them were closed. It seemed like the creatures had finally stopped being distracted and lunged for him once more, he moved to the right as the jaws snapped closed where he was moments ago. He then tried something strange. He jumped straight up.

Normally, a fox his size could maybe jump a foot, two feet was pushing it. He seemed to go against all laws of physics and jumped straight to the ceiling. He then broke several more laws of physics, because why not? And stuck to the ceiling.

The creatures tried to jump for him but missed, they then seemed to try to copy him and tried to climb up the walls, they weren't that bright. In the other room, he heard shouting and decided to try to find another way in there. He walked on the ceiling and the creatures followed him, clacking along. Eventually they seemed to lose interest in him and walked away, he decided to follow them and they eventually came to a room that opened, right beside the room Thalia went into, the door way was tall enough that they could reach him if they jumped.

He didn't follow them, in case it was a trap choosing to look around the mansion instead, he found nothing but empty depressing rooms and bones. Eventually he heard the hooves of three of them as they left the room and watched them, they seemed to have forgotten about him as they didn't even bother looking for him.

He waited for about half an hour to be sure that they weren't tricking him into going into the room just for them to corner him. He then entered the room, finding it as run down as the rest of the house, the only difference being a metal panel that seemed to lead into the room beside. The room Thalia and Luke were in! Forgetting discretion, fear filled him, what if they had been cornered in there. He fell to the ground and pushed on the panel, opening it and entering into a cage. Bones, the remains of armour and weapons littered the floor, he saw that through the bars was another room.

He saw Luke and an old man chatting in a corner, Thalia was holding a jar in her hands, her eyeliner had run down her face, for some reason and image of an old man with red tear tracks like that. Her face was scrunched up in a scowl and she glared at the jar in her hands with intense concentration.

"Thalia!" He called out to her and she closed her eyes avoiding the cage. Luke and the old mad looked up in shock at the sight of him.

"Damn leucrota." She yelled, "stop copying his voice!"

"Am Parrot, not leocrate." Parrot said, confusion in his voice.

Thalia's eyes widened and she turned to the cage, shock on her face, that turned to happiness as she ran to the bars of the cage. "Parrot! You're alive! How?"

"Horse-wolf stupid." Parrot said, "I stand on ceiling, they leave. You okay?" Thalia's face broke from happiness to anger.

"We thought you were dead! What the hell were you thinking?!" Thalia yelled.

"Sorry," Parrot said, his tail and ears drooping, his eyes seemed to double in size and became watery, he looked up at her and she just couldn't stay angry.

She reached in and brought the fox close through the bars hugging him as best she could with the bars in the way, "I'm just glad you're okay." Then Luke came over and began to explain the situation. Thalia was holding onto some electrical wiring with an intense look of concentration on her face, which to Parrot it seemed she ate at the weird taco place again.

Apparently, those bars would open at sunset and the leucrota would come in and eat them, Hal had been trapped here by the gods after saving a young girl with his gift of prophecy and the gods loved their ironic punishments. Now his words, instead of saving lives would take them, Luke told him about opening the safe and the bracelet. Then he said about the plan with the Greek fire, he then explained about how Hal was going to lure them to the bathroom while they escaped.

"Okay, go lightning!" Parrot cheered for Thalia, Parrot watched from the cage as she finally managed to call forth lightning, casting the room in brilliant blue glow. At the thunder, Parrot couldn't help himself and howled in agony, the sound was terrifyingly loud with his enhanced hearing.

Thalia turned to him and then her face paled, "Parrot, get out of there." Luke and Hal had equally pale faces. The leucrota all entered the cage, now there wasn't much room for him to move about in, so ignoring the shocked shouts of Luke and the terrified cries of Thalia Parrot leapt to the roof of the cage.

The three demi-gods watched in awe as he just stood there, "see, walk on ceiling, wolf-horse not reach."

Luke being the practical one asked, "can you fit through the bars?"

Parrot tried, but found they were just too wide, if only he was smaller, as if by magic his body began to shrink, de-aging to the point he looked like a new-born. He felt slightly weaker but managed to go through the bars. He jumped into Thalia's arms and she grabbed him, his smaller form fitting into one hand easily, fortunately he landed in the hand not holding the deadly explosive Greek fire.

The leucrota clacked their mouths in frustration, one look at the clock showed it to be seven on the dot. Hal tried to tell the monsters to leave but they didn't listen, it was too close to dinner time, they needed to trick the monsters into going into the bathroom while Thalia and Luke hid in the cupboard. Unfortunately since they were watching them, they wouldn't be tricked that way.

Parrot suddenly had an idea, "do plan quick, I distract." Then without any more warning he jumped out of Thalia's hand and jumped to the ceiling, slipping through the bars again.

"No, Parrot!" Thalia yelled in fear but he already had their attention.

"Go, I not get hurt." One of them started to lose focus on the fox so he jumped onto its snout, startling it, reluctantly they went along with Hal's plan and the old man said his final goodbyes.

Finally, the bars disappeared and Parrot jumped to the ceiling again, after about twenty minutes they got bored of him and looked for their other prey. Hal suddenly started insulting them, using their own mouths to talk, forcing them to insult themselves and, after a tense silence only broken by Hals voice.

Finally Luke and Thalia moved out of the wardrobe and ran for the panel the monsters came through, they almost made it, but one leucrota ran out of the bathroom and lunged for Luke. It was then that Parrot came up with the brilliant idea. If he could shrink, why could he not grow? So, he lunged for the monster from the ceiling at the size of a new-born, and landed, the size of an Irish wolfhound. He felt a wave of nausea over take him as he landed on the creature, knocking it away from Luke. He tried to stand but felt exhausted, he then felt his body shrink again and found himself the size of a new-born again. He felt weak, but the nausea was gone, he stood and ran to Luke and Thalia who watched in shock, Luke lifted him like a football and they made their escape.

Halcyon Green made his final battle cry, finally with his own voice, "for Apollo!" The mansion shook, like an earthquake hit. They made it to the hallway, just in time to see the flames everywhere, fire flooded out of Hal's door like water, anything that got in its way vanished in the flames. Smoke was everywhere but they were at the stairs, they made their way through the dark cloud and were about to make it to the door when one of the leucrota lunged for Luke, knocking him on his back and forcing him to drop Parrot who rolled away.

The creature wasn't looking too good, it's fur was singed its ears were aflame and one eye wouldn't open. Thalia screamed out Luke's name and grabbed her spear from the floor where she had dropped it, she jabbed it right in the monster's stomach but it shrugged off the injury. It snapped its jaws at her, Luke looked like he'd pop if the monster put any more pressure on his chest.

Parrot suddenly lunged at the leucrota he made himself bigger, this time he managed to hold this state. He knocked the creature off Luke and bite down on its throat, the creature wailed in the voices of its victims but managed to kick Parrot off it. He went flying and hit Luke, who caught him, he was the size of a kit again, he was hopefully unconscious, but the smoke wasn't helping his condition.

Luke gained a look of recognition and glanced at Thalia's new bracelet, "Thalia, what was Zeus' shield called?"

"What shield?" Thalia asked eyeing the unconscious fox with fear, before turning an angry gaze to the final leucrota.

"Aegis. Thalia, the bracelet has a code word!" He yelled frantically.

Thalia tapped the bracelet and yelled, "Aegis!" The bracelet expanded, becoming a bronze disk with the head of a gorgon on its face, not just any gorgon though. Medusa's head was pressed into the centre, it had a mouth of fangs, snakes for hair and eyes that scared Luke into turning away.

The leucrota took one look and jumped back, yelping like a frightened puppy, it ran straight into the drapes, which came to life and gripped the monster. The creature screamed, begging for help using voices of its previous kills as it disintegrated into the black folds of the deadly drapes.

Thalia grabbed Luke with one hand and cradled Parrot in the other, yelling "hurry" as she half dragged the son of Hermes to the door. Just as they reached the door, the fire reached them and the entire building exploded.

The two demi-gods were suddenly sprawled in front of the statue of Robert E. Lee, Luke groaned as he turned to face Thalia only to come face to face with Medusa. He let out a very manly scream and ran until he was behind the statue. Thalia didn't move to stand, instead she was transfixed by the small bundle in her hands, Luke finally got the courage to run to her and found that the bundle was a small fox kit.

Parrot was unmoving, he lay there, so small, so defenceless in Thalia's hands, his fur was covered in soot making it lose its silver gleam. He looked lifeless. Thalia was silent, tears fell from her face landing on the ground. Luke took her free hand and squeezed it gently, they both sat there, staring at their unmoving companion.

Suddenly the small fox coughed, shocking the two of them out of their depression. He opened his eyes and looked up at Thalia, her eyes shone with happiness and she gently brought the fox in close.

Thalia then gently placed her companion on her shoulder, where he curled around her neck protectively. Thalia then looked to the burning building sadly.

"Why did he save us? Why did he sacrifice himself?" She asked Luke, he had no reply, he was lost in thought, only broken out of it by the sounds of sirens.

"Come on." He said, starting to run, not stopping until they came to a park. There they cleaned out a restroom and stayed there until it was fully dark out. By the time they did so, their vulpine companion was fully awake and had grown himself until he was the same size as before they began their trip through Hal's mansion.

They then made their way through the residential area, no goat to guide them anymore, they eventually came to the industrial area of Richmond. The three of them were exhausted and had no idea where they were going so they just drifted past the warehouses, they were lucky to not run into any monsters.

Eventually they decided to stop at an old abandoned warehouse by the name of 'Richmond Iron Works' a name that took Luke exactly three minutes to decipher thanks to the dyslexia. They huddled together in a clear area on the floor, Thalia began shivering, the broken windows let in the cold breeze. Parrot comforted her, wrapping his tail around her neck and giving her warmth.

"We could go to our old camp." Thalia said, "on the James River, we've got supplies there."

Luke nodded, but he wasn't really listening, his attention focused on Halcyon Green message to him, he opened his bag and removed a ham sandwich. He split it between the three of them, Parrot ate like it was his last meal, scoffing the sandwich in seconds.

Suddenly Parrot sat up straight, his ears perking up and twitching, the others heard it too, the soft ping of something hitting metal. Parrot started sniffing, searching for the stench of monster, something they learned he could find quite well if he concentrated.

"Not monster." He said.

"But it's not a regular mortal." Luke said, causing the others to look at him in confusion.

(With Annabeth)

Whiskers and Annabeth had been staying in the abandoned iron factory for a few days, Whiskers hunting for the two of them. Annabeth's money had run dry recently so this was the only way for them to get food, Whiskers always managed to find enough for the two of them. Sometimes he even managed to find fruit, how he did that when they were in the city Annabeth didn't know, but he swore he didn't steal it from shops. Annabeth was seriously considering stealing at this point, even if she knew it was wrong she didn't have anything but Whiskers.

She had been waiting for Whiskers to return for a while now, he had been gone for a few hours and Annabeth was getting anxious. What if something bad happened to him? She was just about to go search for him when she heard a noise from outside the factory, footsteps. Her first thought was monster. She panicked, she didn't know what to do, all she had was a hammer, so she hid. She fled the warehouse and hid in the alley behind it, she dared not go further, what if Whiskers came back and got ambushed by monsters?

So, she sat and waited, eventually after what felt like forever she made a move, she was going to see what the monsters were. Maybe she could beat them, no, not maybe, if she got the drop on them she would definitely beat them, she had seen Whiskers fight the monsters plenty of times so she could definitely do it.

Unfortunately when she moved she nudged some sheet metal, and the screws that were lying precariously on it fell off. Ping. The screws hit the floor and she froze, maybe they didn't hear her, that line of thought disappeared when she heard them moving her way. So, she hid. She hid under a sheet of corrugated iron, maybe they wouldn't notice her and at the last moment she would jump out and get them.

So, she waited, she heard them get closer, her heart thumped in her chest, trying to escape her ribcage. They were getting closer, she was terrified, suddenly she twitched and the sheet moved, knocking against the ground with a clang. Annabeth's heart somehow sped up, they knew where she was, sweat dripped down her and she couldn't move.

Suddenly the sheet was moved away and she reacted instantly, instinct told her to jump out and hit the monster with her hammer. She missed, how could she miss? Something grabbed her hand and she dropped the hammer, it skidded to the side, too far for her to reach. Annabeth panicked and started to struggle, kicking, hitting, doing whatever she could to escape the monster, but it didn't work.

"No! No more monsters!" She yelled, terror gripping her, she didn't want to die. "Go away!"

The monsters started talking to her but she didn't listen her attention focused on something terrifying, a monster. It had snakes for hair and sharp teeth, it's eyes bore into her, looking into her soul. She knew what it was, a gorgon, Medusa. She struggled harder.

She closed her eyes and kicked more, she wouldn't get away. Suddenly the monster spoke, "Hey little girl," she spoke in a calm reassuring voice but Annabeth still fought. "It's alright. We're not going to hurt you, I'm Thalia, this is Luke and this is Parrot."

Annabeth kicked one last time and screamed, "monsters!"

One of them spoke again, "no, but we know about monsters. We fight them too." Annabeth finally stopped kicking, she looked up at the boy, not a monster.

"You're like me?" Suspicion was layered in her question but a flicker of hope rested in her eyes.

"Yeah," Luke said, "we're…" he stopped, "well it's hard to explain, but we fight the monsters." He paused, "where's your family?"

Annabeth felt angry and bitter at that, "my family hates me. They didn't want me so I ran away."

The other one, Thalia crouched down next to her and put a hand on Annabeth's shoulder, "what's your name, kiddo?"

"Annabeth," The young demi-god said.

"Nice name," Luke said, smiling at her, "I tell you what, Annabeth. You're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

Annabeth's eyes widened, "you could?"

"Oh yeah," Luke said, he then pulled out a dagger from his belt, Hal's dagger, he stared at it for a moment before speaking again. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer." He handed the dagger to the seven-year-old, maybe not the best idea, but she was a demi-god. "Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters." He stopped for a moment, "they don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in an enemy's armour. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

Annabeth smiled up at him and said, "I'm clever!"

Suddenly, Parrot spoke up, he hadn't spoken in a while, "you smell of me." He said, a frown somehow appeared on his muzzle.

Annabeth suddenly looked surprised at the fox in front of her, "Whiskers! Do you know these people?" Parrot suddenly looked confused.

"Am Parrot." He said.

"Whiskers you're a fox." Annabeth replied, she looked confused, "where did you go?"

"I here with Thalia. I not know you. I am Parrot." Parrot said.

"Annabeth," Thalia suddenly broke in, "Parrot is his name, he's my," she looked at Luke, "…our fox."

"No, he's Whiskers, he's been with me for weeks! I taught him to talk." Annabeth said, tears pricked her eyes, "stop joking like this Whiskers."

"Not joke. Am Parrot." Parrot said defensively, "I not know you." Suddenly Parrot's head shot up and he growled at the end of the ally, the others turned expecting to see a monster but instead saw a fox. One who looked identical to Parrot.

"Whiskers?" Annabeth asked.

"Parrot?" Thalia asked looking between the two foxes in confusion. Luke simply looked confused.

The other fox started growling and he glared at Parrot, they snarled and Parrot jumped down from Thalia. The other fox started walking towards them, they both kept growling, Annabeth suddenly ran to the other fox and stood in front of him.

"Whiskers." She called to the fox, he turned his gaze to her, his eyes softened.

"Annabeth." He then looked back down to the other fox and growled, "move." He told the girl.

"What? Why?" Annabeth asked.

"Other Whiskers. Other me." Whiskers said, "Annabeth, move."

"Thalia. Luke. Not good Parrot." Parrot said to his group.

"Whiskers hunt other Whiskers." Whiskers said.

"Hunt." Parrot growled out.

"No, Whiskers! Don't fight. There are friends." Annabeth said.

Thalia was suddenly beside Annabeth staring at Parrot, "what are you doing? Why would you fight him?"

"Hungry?" Parrot tried, Thalia glared at him, he then looked back at the other fox, "other Parrot smell strange."

"Not Parrot, me Whiskers." Whiskers growled out, as menacingly as possible, which is hard when you are a fox going by the name of Whiskers.

"Calm down Whiskers." Annabeth pleaded, "don't hurt anyone." She asked and Whiskers looked back at her.

"…Whiskers don't like Annabeth not happy." Whiskers said and backed away to Annabeth's side.

"Parrot, back down." Thalia said, "they are friendly." Parrot reluctantly backed down Thalia then went over and picked him up, keeping him in her arms, even as he growled at the other fox.

The atmosphere was tense for a moment before Thalia spoke up, "let's get going." She turned to the fox in her hands, "you are not to fight with this fox, understand." He growled but nodded, she then turned to Annabeth, "we've got a safe-house on the James river, we've got supplies there."

Annabeth looked at Whiskers and then picked him up, "before we go." She said, looking down at Whiskers, "you… you won't take me back to my family?"

Luke walked over to her and knelt down at eye level, "you are part of our family now," he said smiling softly, "And I promise you, I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

"Deal." Annabeth said happily.

(With Zoe)

Zoe had been traveling for a while, she had nowhere to look, the prophecy had been very vague, all she knew was that she was to search for nine… somethings. What they did she didn't know, they would also be with nine different future heroes, that narrows it down a bit but demi-gods, especially unclaimed, unknowing ones are harder to find. She sighed, she then looked up at the moon, hidden by the clouds, her lady was trying to avoid her, no wonder, she had killed her son.

The full weight of what she had done had struck her a while ago, the child of her lady, male or not, was someone she should have come to care for. Yet she had struck him down, he may not be dead but he certainly wasn't going to be happy with her, she had a slim chance to find him. But she would, she would live up to her mistakes.

She heard a noise to the right, something that was becoming increasingly rare, it seems her curse had led even the animals to leave her presence. She turned to the source of the noise and found a small fox sitting there looking at her. She blinked behind her mask, normally an animal would have left by know, the fox was silver, maybe a message from her mistress. The fox just looked at her, it then blinked and seemed to smile, it then padded over to her and sat at her feet expectantly.

"Why hast thou come to me?" Zoe asked. The fox yipped at her, "I guess thou can't understand me." Zoe said with a sigh, maybe her lady didn't send this fox and it was just a coincidence.

"Understand." The fox said, Zoe froze and looked at the young creature.

"Thou doth understand?" Zoe asked in joy.

"Understand?" The fox asked with a tilted head.

"Thou doth not comprehend what I am saying?" Zoe asked with a sigh.

"Understand." The fox nodded sagely.

"Fine, mine lady doth mock me." Zoe muttered.

"Hunter?" The fox asked.

"Yes, mine lady is Artemis, I was banished, for killing her child." Zoe said.

"Artemis?!" The fox sounded terrified, Zoe guessed he must have been running from the hunt, or something, a pelt like his would be a grand prize after all.

"If thou would like, thou may join me in mine own hunt." Zoe said.

The fox looked slightly scared.

"I'm sorry if thou art fearful, thou shalt be safe as my own companion. Hunters shalt not search for thou in my company." The fox seemed to relax at her calm tone as she spoke.

"Well, thou shalt need a name," Zoe said, "Hmm, if my lady hath deemed it thou plan to send thou to me, thou may help me in mine quest. It is her interests to get the child as soon as possible. Will thou accompany me?" The fox tilted his head and looked confused. "I'll take that as a yes, now, thou need a name. I shall name thee after thine quest. Naruto."

The now named Naruto looked up, "Naruto." He agreed.

"Shallt we be off then?" Zoe asked.


	26. Chapter 26

(With the demi-gods)

The group had finished their trip and at the moment they were laying low in their base on the James river. Thalia was on the lookout for monsters while the others slept. She was smiling at a small picture, she always had it on her, it was a reminder, a reminder of what she had lost. She stared down at the photo of her and her baby brother, in one of the moments between being drunk and hungover, her moth- Beryl had taken a photo of just the two of them.

The image was slightly torn at the edges but other than that it was in perfect condition. The picture was a younger Thalia holding onto a small blonde boy, he had the same eyes as hers, their father's eyes and a small scar on his lip. He was grinning from her lap, she too was smiling, she didn't have eyeliner and her hair wasn't as roughly cut.

Thalia became aware that she wasn't the only one awake when a small fuzzy head nuzzled into her arm.

"Who that?" Parrot asked quietly, not wanting to wake the others.

"That's…" Thalia briefly contemplated lying and saying it was no one, but looked into the fox's blue eyes, ones that brimmed with innocence the same way Jason's had. "That's my brother." She finally whispered out sadly.

"Oh," the fox sat down beside her, "is he…" He began.

"He's dead." Thalia said sadly, "he… he was the reason I left. My mom-Beryl, she was drunk most of the time, I had to raise him. I took care of him, and I raised him. Beryl didn't help, all she did was drink and wallow in self-pity." Thalia hissed out, but her voice softened, "Jason, he was only two. Beryl decided to take us on a picnic. That should have warned me, she never took us anywhere." She said bitterly, "she was holding Jason, eventually we came to a spot to eat, She told me to go and get the basket from the car," she took a deep breath, "when I came back, Jason was gone. I-I searched all over the place but he wasn't there." She sobbed slightly, "it's my fault, if I'd have held onto him…"

Thalia never told anyone about this, she didn't plan on telling anyone either. She was sobbing quietly, suddenly a tail wiped the tears away, Parrot, now the size of a border collie gently nuzzled into her. Thalia wrapped her arms around him, holding onto him and sobbing softly into his fur, he said nothing, but gently pet her head with his tail, comforting her as best as he could.

After a few minutes Thalia sat up and looked into the fox's eyes, "thank you," she whispered, "for listening." She then wiped her eyes and her eyes hardened, "but if you ever tell anyone about me crying like that…" She let the threat linger, but he knew it was only have hearted.

"No telling." He said grinning, they sat there in silence for a minute before he spoke again, "Jason love you." He said, "I not speak well, but I see well. Picture him love picture you very much." Thalia felt a stray tear escape her at that.

"Yeah," she said, "I love him just as much."

"He go to Elsum." Parrot said, "he happy there, he waits for you, but he want you be old Thalia then."

Another stray tear, but Thalia couldn't help the grin on her face, "thanks. And it's Elysium."

They sat there in a comfortable silence for a minute, Thalia was lying down and using Parrot as a pillow, while he wrapped his body to comfort the daughter of Zeus.

Eventually Thalia finally spoke again, "you never told me you could grow and shrink like that." She said absentmindedly.

"Didn't know." He said, and Thalia turned to him in shock sitting up off him.

"You didn't know you could do that?" She asked in shock, "then how did you know it would work when you jumped at the leucrota?"

"Didn't, just guessed." Parrot said absentmindedly.

"You jumped at a monster at the size a puppy without knowing you could do that?" Thalia asked shocked.

"Yup. Still not know how it work." Parrot said.

"But do you not feel something, like getting tired or something, or like a weird feeling in your stomach?"

"Nope, it just take chakra to do." Parrot replied.

"Wait, what's chakra?"

"It… I not know." His face became a mass of confusion. "I know, but not?"

"Okay. Well, I think it's Luke's turn to watch." Thalia said, waking said demi-god and gesturing for Parrot to come over to her. "Okay, shrink down to a manageable size, you can sleep on top if you want."

Parrot jumped up and landed on top of her sleeping bag at the size of a two-week-old kit, he then lay down and drifted off, Thalia following his lead.

(Time skip)

The group of demi-gods had been traveling for months now, their foxes were now fully able to speak English and had broadened their vocabulary. Neither fox was comfortable with the others presence but had not fought with each other, they were too busy fighting the various monsters that attacked them. Whiskers had learned that he too could become big and small when he wanted, but becoming big wasted 'chakra'. Something neither of them knew about but still knew enough that it was the reason for their ability to shrink and grow. They also found that if they wasted too much chakra they would collapse and normally fall into the realm of Hypnos. The biggest they could make themselves was the size of a lion, but they could only hold this form for a few minutes, the bigger they were the more chakra they wasted.

The number of monsters had also increased, seemingly at random. One day there were only a few monsters every odd day, now every day was becoming a struggle, now the group were deciding on a plan, Thalia had injured her leg in the previous attack. She couldn't go far and they knew that the monsters would be coming for them soon, they needed to find somewhere to fix Thalia's leg up soon.

Luke had reluctantly said he could bring them to his home, it wasn't far from here and they would be safer there. They made their way to the house, which looked nice, somewhere the others didn't understand him running from, but maybe his mum wasn't nice. Thalia and Annabeth tried to reason that was the case, they tried to sneak in but q light appeared in front of the door, man, no god, who bore a striking resemblance to Luke.

"You should not have come here," the man spoke to them, he then looked at Luke, "we need to talk." He said, he then directed his son to another room. The two girls, and their vulpine companions, made their way over to the kitchen where they found Luke's mom, she was baking by the looks of it.

"Hello." Thalia said and the woman looked at them, she smiled happily at them.

"Hello," she said, "are you Luke's friends, he's such a good boy, such a shame he…" She trailed off, "oh hi," she said, "I'm May, you must be Luke's friends." The two girls looked nervous, this woman was strange. "Would you like a drink?" She asked them, they replied with a nod, "ok, Luke always loved this, before…" She poured them out some Kool aid and gave it to the two girls. It was lumpy and looked unpleasant but they took a drink anyway.

"Did you hurt your ankle?" May asked the daughter of Zeus, "here, Hermes gave me this for Luke, if he ever hurt himself." She handed her some ambrosia, "he always ended up with scraped knees and hurt himself. Before he left that is…" She looked off into the distance and looked saddened. She then looked at the two of them and smiled, she then found their foxy friends and at their feet and bent down to pet them. Her hands were harshly stroked their fur but the two foxes allowed this woman to pet them, she was the mother of their friend and would treat her nice.

"Well aren't you nice." She complemented, "Luke always did like dogs, I wonder if I should have got him one, before…" She trailed off and looked down.

Suddenly Luke barged out of the room he and his father went into, "so you don't care!" He yelled back and stormed off out of the house, Thalia and Annabeth followed. May began sobbing and crying out his name, begging him to come back, Hermes then grabbed her and held her gently, stopping her from running off.

The two foxes looked at the saddened face of Hermes and the sobbing face of May, they then gave an apologetic look before running after them. They soon caught up with them to find them surrounded by a horde of monsters, the three children looked terrified, never had this many gathered at one time. The foxes lunged at the nearest monster to them and struck. Like a switch the rest of the monsters attacked, aiming for the demi-god children, they fought as well, Luke cutting them down with his sword, Thalia stabbing with a spear and Annabeth getting any that got close with a knife.

Unfortunately the young Annabeth was terrified and kept trying to stay close to the elder demi-gods, one of the monsters lunged at her. It was about to strike when suddenly Whiskers appeared in front of her, he snapped his jaws around the arm of the dracaena as it lunged at her and bit down. He then lunged at the monster's throat and bit down, it turned to dust and blew away in the wind, the fox turned to Annabeth and smiled at her.

"I'll protect you, Annie." He said before turning back to the monsters, this time making sure never to go far away from the young girl and attacking any monster that came near her.

Though the group had killed plenty of monsters they were on their last legs, they were all exhausted and could barely continue. The demi-gods were glad of the foxes help as they took care of some of the tougher monsters for them, but they knew that they wouldn't be able to keep fighting, even now the foxes were slowing down.

Suddenly thought the two foxes froze in place, they looked terrified. The two of them looked back at the group with terrified looks in their eyes, they then looked at each other and shared a glance, seemingly agreeing on something for once. Their gaze then returned to the demi-gods. Parrot looked at Thalia and spoke to her quickly, "I'm sorry, but we have to go." He then ran through a pack of hellhounds, destroying any that got in his way.

Whiskers then turned to Annabeth, "I'll be back, but I can't stay either, don't tell her we were here." He said and then ran off in the same direction as Parrot did.

"What?!" Thalia raged, "don't leave us!" She shouted to their companions.

"Whiskers! No!" Annabeth shouted but the fox was gone.

The monster continued to fight them and the demi-gods feared this was it, suddenly the sound of a horn came through the clearing. Several streams of silver flew through the forest and struck the monsters, some came dangerously close to hitting Luke too. The monsters dissipated into dust, the children turned to their next attackers but were stunned when several girls, no older than Thalia emerged.

"Who are you?" Thalia asked wearily, none of them were ready to take on people who took care of those monsters so quickly.

"We are hunters," one of them replied, "my name is Phoebe, come, my lady wishes to speak with you." She then gestured that they follow her.

"Who is your lady?" Thalia asked suspiciously.

"Artemis, goddess of the hunt, maidenhood and childbirth." Phoebe replied.

"What does a goddess want with us?" Luke asked bewildered.

"Silence boy," Phoebe said harshly, "our lady wishes to speak with Thalia of Zeus. You three may come to our camp." She glared at Luke the entire time.

They followed the hunters to a camp site, they were led to a tent for them to heal their injuries, Annabeth fell asleep after one of the hunters plastered her wounds. Thalia and Luke talked quietly with one and other so as the others didn't hear them.

"Why did they leave?" Luke asked, slightly angrily.

"I don't know." Thalia said bitterly.

"What did they say?" Luke asked, he was too engrossed in fighting to hear what either of them said.

"Parrot just said he had to go, Whiskers said not to tell 'her' maybe they have met the hunters before or something." Thalia said bitterly, her expression softened ever so slightly. "They looked scared."

"That isn't an excuse." Luke said angrily, Thalia scowled before frowning.

"I know," Thalia said sadly, "but we're fine now."

"Yeah." Luke said.

Soon one of the hunters came in and told Thalia to follow her alone, she had black hair and red eyes, she stood out from the others for some reason. They came to a tent and were led inside, there were furs everywhere and many other trophies, tusks, horns, even a few claws. All of them came from deadly animals, probably monsters, the sight of them sent chills down Thalia's spine, she came in front of a young girl about ten years old.

The girl who led her here bowed and looked at Thalia, "bow, this is Artemis." She whispered, the demi-god was surprised. This young girl was Artemis?

"It is fine," Artemis said, she sounded tired, more so than someone who looked her age should be, "sit Thalia, we have some things to discuss."

"What sort of things?" Thalia asked.

"I have an offer for you, I would like you to join my hunt," this surprised Thalia, "I offer you immortality and eternal youth." Artemis finished.

"What's the catch?" Thalia asked suspiciously.

"The immortality only stands if you keep your vow, you may fall in battle or on a hunt however, and you must also stay away from males." Artemis said.

"What about my friends?" Thalia asked, she was considering the offer.

"Well, Annabeth may also join but she is will need to be older, this is a big decision, she needs to mature a bit." Artemis said.

"And Luke?" Thalia asked.

"He may not join. We cannot have males here." Artemis said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"… I'm sorry, I can't just leave him." Thalia said.

Artemis sighed, "I understand, maybe you shall choose otherwise if our paths cross again."

"Err… thank you, but I don't think that's going to happen." Thalia said.

"We'll see." Artemis said, a ghost of a grin on her face.

Thalia then left the tent and went back to the one that Luke and Annabeth were in, Artemis promised her rest for the night. She also told her of a safe place for demi-gods, camp half-blood. They would head off there, Artemis told them to head to New York, a satyr would meet them and guide them from there. She found a bed next to Annabeth and quickly went to sleep.

(Next morning)

When they awoke, they were told by one of the hunters, who glared at Luke, that they were to leave, Thalia told the others of camp half blood. They agreed that it was the best course of action and began their journey to New York, they left the hunters and began their track to New York. They found a path in the forest and followed it, hoping it would lead out of the forest and in the general direction of New York. They heard a rustle in the bushes to the right of them, they feared another monster attack and raised their weapons to fight.

Out of the bushes emerged Whiskers, when he saw Annabeth he smiled and approached her, he called out behind them, "it's them, I told you didn't I?"

"Lucky guess." Another voice replied and Parrot came out of the undergrowth, he grinned at Thalia and Luke, "good to see you're ok." He said with a smile.

"You're glad to see we're ok?" Thalia asked incredulously, "why the hell did you abandon us to the monsters?!" She all but screamed at the young fox.

"We're sorry." Whiskers mumbled, "but hunters are bad." He said, "they hurt me before, I don't remember much it was just before I met Annabeth." He said.

"Same with me." Parrot said apologetically, "I think they were hunting us." He shared a look with the other fox, "we knew you'd be ok though."

"And we never went too far away." Whiskers added.

"But they wouldn't have hurt you with us there." Thalia said.

"You don't know that." Parrot said accusingly.

"Fine, coward." Thalia muttered under breath but the foxes heard.

"I'm not a coward!" Parrot yelled, "they came to save you, there was no point in us being there just to be hunted."

"We would have protected you!" Thalia yelled.

"Against a god?" Parrot said.

"If it came to it yes." Thalia said.

"Look," Whiskers interrupted, "it is for the best that we left, no one got hurt and no one would have to fight a god." He said looking at Thalia. "Please just calm down."

"Calm down?! You abandoned us." Thalia accused, she then pointed at the two of them, "you left us, family don't abandon each other, you… you traitors!"

"We didn't, you were alone for a minute or two, you are fine now. Please, don't call us traitors." Whiskers begged, "the hunters are the worst thing for us. It would be like sending you into a den of monsters."

"B-but, you left us." Annabeth said, tearing slightly.

"Please don't cry Annie." Whiskers pleaded.

"We have every right to be upset with you two." Luke said, "you left us when we needed you."

"And who's fault is it, you're the one who dragged us into that mess!" Parrot exclaimed, Luke backed down slightly, like he had been shot, "you ran off! We were safe there."

"You don't know anything! You're just a dumb fox!" Luke yelled.

"Yeah, and you're just a scared child." Parrot replied.

"You should just leave! No one wants you here!" Luke said, "it would have been better if the hunters got you!"

"Luke calm down-" Annabeth asked.

"No! They abandoned us! They should stay away then!" Luke yelled.

"No plea-" Annabeth tried.

"You want me gone? Fine, I'm going." Parrot said, he then ran off into the forest.

"Wait!" Thalia yelled but he was gone, Luke stared, shocked, his friend was gone.

"No, come back!" Annabeth yelled, tears falling to the forest floor.

But it was too late, the fox was gone, he had disappeared.

"Why did you do that!?" Thalia asked angrily at Luke.

"I-I didn't mean it-" Luke began.

"Yes, you did! Why would you say that? He-" Thalia was about to yell.

"You are just as bad." Luke said, "don't go blaming me for all of it."

"Stop it!" Annabeth yelled, stopping the two of them, "stop it please." She said, tears flowing down her face, "just stop fighting."

Whiskers came over and nudged her leg gently, "please stop crying Annie." He pleaded, "I don't like to see you sad." Annabeth then pet his head gently.

"Please don't leave me again." Annabeth said, tears blooming in her eyes still.

"I promise, just stop crying." He said.

A few minutes passed, they all managed to calm down and were now ready to continue their journey. They had no chance of catching Parrot, they knew that he would be nearly impossible to find as even Whiskers said that he wouldn't be able to, he was the only one with any tracking skills. He said that because the other fox smelt so much like him it was nearly impossible to find him.

"So, where are we going?" Whiskers asked, after they began walking.

"New York." Thalia replied, still saddened at the loss of her friend.

"Why?" The fox asked.

"There's a camp for us, it'll be safe there." Luke said.

"In New York, is it not a city?" Whiskers asked confused.

"We're to meet a satyr there, he'll lead us to camp." Thalia said.

"Ok."

They walked in silence for the rest of the day, eventually they came to the big apple and began to search for the satyr. They then realised that New York is a big place, they found a nice place to sleep in the form of an ally, Whiskers kept them warm and kept watch for monsters the whole night. The next day they looked around the city, Whiskers slept in Annabeth's arms as they walked, he was exhausted and stayed asleep even through all the loud noises.

By about mid-day they managed to find a satyr by the name of Grover, Whiskers said he smelled like a goat, so they asked him about camp.

"How do you know about the camp?" He asked when Luke asked him to bring them to the camp.

"We ran into a goddess, she told us to come here to find a satyr." Luke supplied.

"Ok, so three demi-gods. Oh dear, I don't suppose you know your parents?" Grover asked nervously.

"I'm a daughter of Athena." Annabeth said shyly.

"I'm a son of Hermes." Luke said with a scowl at the name.

"I'm a daughter of Zeus." Thalia said, Grover trembled.

"Not good, not good." He muttered under his breath, "y-y-you need to get to camp quickly." He said, they then began the journey to long island where the camp is.

On the way, Grover began to get even more nervous, "Ok, we'll stop in here for tonight." He said, and they entered an old abandoned house in Brooklyn. He realised he took a few wrong turns and knew that it would take another day at least to get back on track. They went into the house and found it to be very dark, soon they heard noises and began to drift away from one another somehow.

Annabeth realised she was now alone, she looked around for her friends but they were nowhere to be found. Then she heard a voice, it was Thalia's.

"Annabeth, come here." The voice said. Annabeth followed the voice, relief coursing through her system.

"Thalia, I'm coming." She called out. She soon found a room with a bright light, she entered a small cavern and was terrified. A cyclopes was standing there with Thalia, Luke, Grover and Whiskers tied up, hanging over a pot, the light came from the fire heating the pot up, the monster started walking towards her.

"Annabeth, run!" Thalia shouted.

"Now Annabeth." The cyclopes said, it's voice sounded exactly like her father, "come here." It said, Annabeth froze, she looked at the monster, she realised she had no chance of running. "Good girl."

Annabeth then unfroze, she reached for her dagger and struck the cyclopes in the knee, it cried out in pain but she ran past it and ran to Thalia.

"Annabeth, run!" Thalia yelled again but Annabeth quickly cut Thalia's bindings, "thank you, but you should have run." Thalia then grabbed her spear and aimed at the cyclopes head, she then let off a lightning bolt, the cyclopes erupted into golden dust. Thalia turned to Annabeth but was wrapped in a hug, Annabeth cried into her stomach, "it's ok, come on now." Thalia tried to calm Annabeth down.

They then cut the others free from their bindings and made their way out of the house.

"Grover, how far away is the camp now?" Thalia asked.

"A few miles away, we should probably make a camp." Grover suggested.

"No, the monsters are coming, we need to hurry." Whiskers said.

They didn't argue and just followed Grover, they soon came across a sign that read 'PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES'

"Not much farther." Grover said.

They then made it to a hill, they could see the camp from here, they heard a growl coming from behind them, they turned and found a large hoard of hellhounds, the furies flew overhead eyeing Thalia. All of them watched them hungrily, they were now terrified, they had no chance of winning against this many.

"Go," Thalia said, the others looked at her, "I'll hold them off, you go to the camp."

"Thalia no you can't-" Luke began but was stopped by Thalia.

"I will, go get help, they're after me." Thalia said.

"But-" Annabeth tried, tears in her eyes.

"Annie, you're going to need to be a big girl now, please go." Thalia said.

"We're getting help." Annabeth said, tears flowing down her face, "stay alive until then, please."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Thalia lied, not facing the young girl, "now go!"

The left Thalia then, she faced the monsters with a spear ready and charged, they charged too, they met and Thalia fought and killed a few. She turned and saw a fury wield a whip, there was no time for her to block, the fiery whip came at her and she winced slightly, this was the end. She heard a yelp and opened her eyes, in front of her was a fox, a silver fox, it was Parrot!

"Parrot? What are you doing here?" Thalia asked, still fighting.

"I never left." Parrot replied, "it was hard to keep track of you but I held off a good few monsters."

"Why? I thought you left for good." Thalia said, happiness filled her at his answer.

"Because you're my friend." Parrot replied, turning to the stunned Thalia, she then saw there was a line of burns on his forepaw.

"What happened to your paw?" Thalia asked.

"That whip burnt." Parrot muttered, Thalia realised he took the whip full force for her.

Even with the two of them the monsters were overwhelming, eventually Thalia collapsed, she'd been hit too many times, she was dying. A silver pile of fur limped over to her, Parrot was injured too.

"Come on now, don't give up yet." He muttered.

"Parrot, get out of here while you still can." Thalia coughed out.

"Not without you." The fox replied.

"Please, you can still make it." Thalia pleaded.

"Not worth it, I'm going to stick with you, till the end." Parrot coughed out.

"Please don't." Thalia pleaded.

"Not want me or something?" Parrot said with a dry chuckle, "too late now anyway." He then crawled up and lay down on her chest, looking her in the eye.

"Thanks Parrot, you're the best." Thalia finally conceded.

"I know." He said with a forced smirk.

"Well, this is the end." Thalia said, she then looked up in the sky, thunder was heard, then there was a strike of lightning, it hit the two of them.

Parrot yipped in pain for a few seconds before going quiet, Thalia to was silenced, their bodies vanishing beneath an enormous pine tree.

(At the camp)

Grover had led the demi-gods and fox to the big house, they came to get Chiron to help Thalia, they would get help for her. Suddenly Whiskers halted, his eyes opened wide, tears forming, there was a strike of lightning in the distance, they turned and saw a large pine tree being erected on the hill.

"It's too late." He said, the group came to a halt.

"What do you mean?" Luke asked, fear in his voice.

"Thalia's gone, Parrot too." Whiskers said sadly.

"No!" Annabeth said, Luke froze, Grover looked saddened, "she isn't gone. She can't be." Annabeth had tears in her eyes.

"You could be wrong." Luke said, barely believing himself, "how do you know?"

"The tree, it's them. Zeus saved them, their souls anyway. Hades won't get them." Whiskers said sadly, "the tree also makes a… a wall… stops the monsters getting in. We can't see it though."

"You can't be sure though." Annabeth said, "they could still be ok."

"No, their scent surrounds the camp." Whiskers said, looking Annabeth in the eye, tears falling from both of their cheeks.

"Please, please. She can't be dead." Annabeth said, at the look from Whiskers she broke down, her friend was gone.


	27. Chapter 27

(Five years later)

Annabeth now eleven years old had grown up a lot more, she was now one of the strongest fighters in camp, she had grown from the shy young girl she once was. She still used the knife that Luke had given her the night they met, she was now very proficient with it, to the point where she could beat many of the older campers.

Luke had also changed since they were on the run, he had grown into one of the strongest warriors in the camp and was the strongest swordsmen in decades, according to Chiron. He had been on a quest, two years before but failed, since then he had a scar on his face, he also became more closed off from Annabeth to her dismay.

Whiskers too, had grown, he was now about the same height as Annabeth's knee, he had become fluent in English. Annabeth was horrified to find that he would not be allowed to stay with her in the cabin, Chiron allowed him to make a den near it though. He always stayed near her no matter what and even snuck in a few nights to keep her company, which Athena apparently didn't mind if the lack of being smote was anything to go by. He would help Annabeth with her training when he could and would always help the satyrs and nymphs. They loved him, most of the time and a few of them believed him to be a message from Pan, they said something about him smelling 'of the wild'.

Unfortunately living at the camp had come with many unfortunate problems, Bandit was one of them. Bandit was a fox that was identical to him and Parrot in every way, he came to camp with Clarise la Rue, a daughter of Ares. He could even talk like him, but he was more violent, something to do with having a daughter of Ares take care of him, they tried to stay away from each other as much as possible. He also found a home near the Ares cabin where he made a den, like Whiskers one.

Most of the campers found it odd that there were two foxes that looked the same yet hated each other so much. The only people who could tell the two apart were Clarise and Annabeth, this further irritated the foxes when they mixed each other up. The foxes themselves were both very strong and could normally beat some of the campers who showed up, the only ones they couldn't beat one on one were the best of the best, and Annabeth and Clarise. That's not to say that the two girls were weak, just that the foxes wouldn't fight the other due to Chiron not allowing fights between the two of them. Because of this the foxes knew that if either harmed the others 'master' they would start a fight between the two of them.

Another large event that happened was the Jinchuuriki's departure. The entire camp knew that the four Jinchuuriki were stronger than any of the other campers, which was why it was such a blow to them that they left. Even though they were stuck in their younger forms they were strong enough to face most monsters on the road, so once they learned the basics of the language and culture, they left. Annabeth only got to see her 'older' brother Roshi once before he left, it was quite soon after their group arrived that the four of them left to find their brothers and sisters. The gods weren't pleased with this, they said that the others wouldn't be able to be found by them now, they said that they would find them no matter what and left.

Annabeth was curious about what made the Jinchuuriki so different, and what Jinchuuriki meant. She never could find the answer though, Chiron would just shake his head sadly when the topic was brought up and tell her it was 'not a subject for young ears'. He would then tell her not to ask the other campers as none of them would know, and if any did they would be forbidden to tell. All he would say was that they were stronger than any other half-blood, but the price was not worth it.

Annabeth was confused though, Chiron had told her the great prophecy, she couldn't imagine anything scarier than that. When she said this to the old centaur he would simply say, 'it is much better that way'.

Now, it was the winter solstice, and the campers at camp half-blood were going on a 'field trip' to Mount Olympus. She had managed to convince Chiron to allow her to bring Whiskers with her after much pestering, but she was to keep an eye on him all the time. Annabeth agreed to this and they were now in the camps van on the way to New York, there weren't that many going on the trip but Luke was with her. She smiled at him and blushed slightly when he returned the smile.

She was about to speak to him but stopped herself out of embarrassment, Whiskers rolled his eyes at her and then smirked, "you _liiiiike_ him." He whispered into her ear with a grin. Annabeth immediately blushed and flicked the fox on the nose, "oww," he said and turned away from her.

"Oh, be quiet you," Annabeth said, her blush on her face still, "and I do not." She quickly whispered into his ear.

"Sure." Whiskers said with a grin.

"Why did I teach you to speak?" Annabeth said with a hand on her head in irritation.

"Because I'm awesome." Whiskers said, an enormous grin now plastered on his face.

"I wouldn't have done it if I knew that you'd be this annoying." She muttered.

"Hmm, I wonder what he would do if I told him of my suspicions." Whiskers said thoughtfully.

"Don't you dare- I mean there's nothing to tell." Annabeth said, her face making an impression of a tomato.

"Hmm." Whiskers said, his grin now somehow bigger than the rest of his mouth, "I wonder how much it would cost you if you wanted me to stay quiet about it?" He said, his grin somehow growing at her nervous expression.

"I-I-I…" Annabeth began, before stopping, "how much?" She asked with a defeated sigh.

"Hmm, well I have been meaning to clean my den out…" he then looked up to Annabeth, his grin becoming more malevolent, "but if _someone_ were to do it for me I guess I would do them a favour."

"…Your evil." Annabeth said, another sigh escaped her, "fine." She then said.

"Good, I think we'll be there soon." Whiskers said, a grin still plastered on his face.

"You really are crafty… Mr Fox." Annabeth said with a small grin.

"Well isn't that adorable." Whiskers said with irritation in his voice, just because he liked that book doesn't mean he needed to be reminded about it. It was one of the things Annabeth could tease him about, after he read that book he kept a close eye on his tail and began to have nightmares of Boris, Bunce and Bean. After reading that book with Annabeth he refused to leave his den for three days straight.

"We're here." Chiron said, they looked outside and saw the empire state building in all its glory, they entered the lobby and went past the 'guard' who let them pass. The entered the elevator in small groups, Annabeth, Whiskers and a child of Demeter went last with Chiron. They went into the elevator and began their ascent to the top floor, a rendition of 'Crazy' playing in the background. They finally made it to Olympus, Annabeth's jaw dropped at the size of it, the architecture of all the buildings. She shook Whiskers about when she saw it and cheered (squealed) in excitement, Whiskers smiled up at her, he knew of her dream to be an architect and helped her where he could in making it become a reality. Not that he could do much though, being a fox and all.

They walked through the streets of Olympus, many of the nymphs and dryads smiling at them as they passed. The trio, led by Chiron soon made their way to the throne room, all of them marvelling at the sight of all the enormous thrones for the Olympians. Hestia sat by her hearth and smiled at them warmly before disappearing.

Whiskers admired the thrones, he soon came to the throne he guessed was the goddess Artemis', for some reason he was drawn towards it. He stood in front of it, for some reason the fear of the name of the huntress not coming to him as he stared at her symbol. He gazed at it for a few minutes, confused to what drew him to this throne. He suddenly felt a warm felling rush through him.

He looked down and found that his fur was glowing silver, he heard Annabeth gasp behind him, he turned to her and found that the trio were watching him amazed. To them he must have looked like a silver lightbulb, "err, what's happening?" He asked Chiron.

(On a road near New York)

The familiar figure of the Sionnach walked down the path, Zoe behind the cursed mask. She had travelled the country in search of the keys the prophecy mentioned but had found nothing. Her companion, Naruto, walked beside her, they were chatting, Zoe having taught him to speak during their travels.

"Where doest thou think we shalt travel?" Naruto asked, he had gained the same mannerisms Zoe had whilst being taught by her.

"I do not know, we hath travelled far and wide, yet these nine hath not been found." Zoe replied sadly, "mine curse shalt never end." She said, defeatedly.

"Thine task shall become clear with time." Naruto told her, "another day shalt bring thine task closer to completion." Naruto said soothingly.

"But what if I fail, what if I am doomed to roam the earth for all time?" Zoe asked.

"Thou shall not fail." Naruto said, "thou shalt-" Naruto was cut off when he found himself glowing silver unexpectedly, "what is this?" He asked.

"It feels like mine lady's power." Zoe said, happily.

"What doth it mean?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"I do not know, maybe-" Zoe was cut off when she began to glow slightly, "does this mean…" she trailed off, the mask fell from her face and landed on the ground, the cloak fell from her shoulders, her face was once again free to the world. "My curse… it- it's over." She said happily.

"But how?" Naruto asked in amazement.

"Maybe… the curse! It was specific. Mine lady said that I shall be cursed until… her son makes it to Olympus!" The now free hunter said happily, "we must go there." The two of them then made their way quickly to New York, unfortunately, they would be too late to find the cause of Zoe's freedom. Around other corners of America, many other foxes glowed silver for a few minutes, they were confused for a while but concluded that it was nothing. Any of their 'owners' who saw the strange occurrence would be confused but would eventually forget it.

(With Whiskers)

"I don't know, maybe it is a blessing." Chiron said.

"But, why would the goddess of the hunt bless me?" Whiskers asked.

"I do not know, maybe you shall learn someday." Chiron said.

"Umm, ok I guess," Whiskers said with a shrug.

"So… what now." The son of Demeter said awkwardly.

"I guess we… leave?" Whiskers said, they went on to look around the rest of Olympus, they couldn't find Luke anywhere though. One of the other campers, when they caught up with them said that he left the group, they didn't know where he went. They assumed he went to the toilet, he was on Olympus though so what's the worst that could happen?

Soon Chiron ended the tour and they left Olympus, Annabeth was a bit saddened by that but was happy she got to see the amazing buildings anyway. They went down through the elevator and went into one of the camps vans, when Luke didn't show up they assumed that he went in one of the other vans much to Annabeth's 'secret' displeasure.

They soon made their way back to camp, when they got there Annabeth and Whiskers set out to look for Luke. They couldn't find him anywhere, they went to Chiron and found from one of the harpies that he hadn't gone into one of their vans. They were now getting worried, Annabeth especially had come up with some theories involving displeasing a deity and getting smote. They were told to head back to their cabins and reluctantly did so.

(The next morning)

Annabeth entered the big house to question if Luke had returned during the night only to run head first into the boy. They both fell over and Annabeth blushed at that.

"Sorry, I – Luke!" Annabeth said,

"Hi Annabeth." Luke said with a grin, Annabeth blushed a little more.

"Wait, where were you yesterday?" Annabeth said, "I thought something bad happened to you."

"Well, I wasn't feeling too well, I went outside to get some air, by the time I went back to the building you lot had left. I had to walk all the way back, I got here late at night, had to avoid some of the harpies." Luke said.

"That's a relief, I thought you annoyed a god and, you know, were smote." Annabeth said.

Luke laughed at that, "well someone doesn't think I can take care of myself, oh ye of little faith."

Annabeth giggled at that, "I'm going to tell Whiskers that you're ok, we were both worried about you." She then ran off to Whiskers den, a blush adorning her cheeks.

She arrived at the small hole in the ground and peeped her head in, the hole didn't have much for comfort, a few blankets were there for warmth. There was a small pile of food on a plate he must have snuck in at some point, it was mostly empty with only a few crumbs on it. There were a few animal bones in one corner of the room, most stripped of all meat, though a few still had small red parts still on them. Finally in the far corner of the hole, Whiskers lay under a blanket, the hole was only big enough to fit a fox comfortably, he was happy with that as it gave him privacy from everyone.

"Whiskers." Annabeth said loudly, waking the fox up, "Luke's back." The fox got out of his blanket and exited the hole, taking time to sniff it out first, a habit he got from his 'hero', Mr Fox.

After he exited his home he looked up to Annabeth "is he ok?" He asked the girl.

"Yeah," Annabeth said, "he got left behind and had to walk, it took him ages."

"Makes more sense than what you thought," the fox then snorted, "I thought you were smart." He said with a grin.

Annabeth looked annoyed at her companion, "I'll have you know I'm one of the smartest kids in the Athena cabin, and I'm way smarter than you!" She said in a haughty tone.

"Oh, I guess I should bow before your worship," he said with sarcasm, Annabeth smirked at it all the same, "but, I guess it makes sense." He said, a grin growing on his face, "you think strange things when you're in love."

"What? But you promised." Annabeth said pleadingly.

"Yup, but my den isn't looking too clean." He said with a smirk. She grumbled an insult in Greek that he understood to be very rude and not for someone as young as her to say, "mind your language young lady." He said.

"Fine, just please don't say anything." Annabeth said.

"Fine," he agreed, she grinned happily, "now get to work." Her grin fell, she had to clean up the remains of his hunts.

He left her to do her work and went about his day normally, he saw a large culmination of clouds spiralling in the sky. It looks like there would be a storm coming.

(On Olympus)

"Where is my bolt?!" Zeus yelled angrily, the winds circled him angrily, lightning sparked in his fingertips.

The council had gathered after news of the bolts disappearance reached them, they all reluctantly gathered.

"How would we know?" Demeter said.

"Yeah, as fun as it would be, we can't steal your bolt." Hermes said.

"Then who-" Zeus began, he was interrupted when the doors to the throne room opened, a young woman ran towards the thrones.

"My lady!" She called, Artemis soon recognised her to be Zoe.

"Zoe?" Artemis questioned, she had been cursed to find her son, but her cloak and mask were gone, that must mean…

"My lady." Zoe said, she then kneeled before the gods, "I pardon my intrusion, but my curse hath ended."

"Where is he?" Artemis asked happily, her son was alive again.

"Doest thou mean he is not here?" Zoe said.

"What do you mean?" Artemis asked, fear rising in her stomach.

"I assumed that thine child would be here; the words of mine curse were that I would walk eternally unless my lady's son walked upon Olympus. He must be here." Zoe said.

"But how would he get here, the only people to enter Olympus were the… half-bloods. He must be with them!" Artemis yelled triumphantly.

"Artemis." Zeus said, "now is not the time for this."

"But father, my son is alive, I must find him." Artemis said.

"Daughter, I'm sorry, but my bolt needs to be found. It is of vital importance, you may look for your son at another time, for now, you Ares and Apollo shall search for the thief." Zeus said.

"But Father-" Artemis began.

"Artemis." Zeus said harshly, "the master bolt is the most powerful weapon in existence. It is more important than the life of one demi-god." He said in a no-nonsense tone.

"… Fine." Artemis conceded, "I will find your bolt, and then I shall search for my son." She then stormed out of the throne room, Zoe followed her.

"We shall search for the bolt." Apollo said before he too left.

"I'll find your toy." Ares said, before he too left the throne room, his father's eyes glaring at him for his comment.

(With Artemis)

Artemis and Zoe went to the hunter's camp, the other hunters were happy to see their sister after all this time, Artemis brought her to her tent and asked her to sit.

"My lady-" Zoe began but Artemis raised her hand to silence her.

"Zoe," Artemis said with a sigh, "I have missed you." She said, a faint smile ran across her face.

Zoe gained a small smile too, "and I hath missed you my lady."

"Zoe… we will talk, but for now, it is best we search for my father's bolt." Artemis said.

"We… you mean?" Zoe said a look of shock across her face.

"Yes, if you wish you may re-join the hunt." Artemis said.

"My lady I…" Zoe began, tears starting to form, she then smiled happily, "I would be honoured."

"Then welcome back to the hunt, Zoe Nightshade." Artemis said.

(With Clarisse)

Clarisse was slightly annoyed, she, along with her fox Bandit had left to visit her mother over the winter solstice. She had missed a trip to Olympus because if that. She felt kind of cheated because if that, and was now in a foul mood. She needed a fight, that would calm her down. Who could she fight though? Oh, why not Annabeth, she was usually a good fighter. She was one of the few kids in the camp that Clarise respected, not that she would ever say that. She soon found her target, err, sparing partner, fighting against one of the training dummies in the arena.

"Hey wise girl." Clarise called.

Annabeth turned to her and grunted out a 'what?' before turning and continuing to demolish the training dummy.

"Do you want a fight, err, spar?" Clarise asked eagerly.

Annabeth contemplated this for a few minutes, "sure, why not, I beat this dummy, may as well beat another one." She said with a smirk.

Clarise grunted before taking her spear out and getting her shield ready, Annabeth stuck with her knife.

"You ready?" Clarise asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Annabeth said happily.

They rushed at each other, Clarise aimed a jab at Annabeth's stomach but the daughter of Athena dodged to the right and swiped at Clarise's side. She blocked with her shield and then attempted to slam said shield into Annabeth while she moved her spear into a position to stab her with. Annabeth was faster though, she avoided the shield and the hastily jabbed spear strike and managed to kick Clarise shin as she moved.

Clarise grunted, and moved back, "your pretty good." Clarise said, "where's Whiskers?" She asked.

"He's over there," Annabeth pointed to the stands, sure enough the fox lay in one of the seats, watching eagerly. "Where's Bandit?" She then asked the daughter of Ares.

"He went back to his den, said he needed to clear some of his 'hunts' out." Clarise said, Annabeth winced slightly at the mention of the hunts that the fox did. Both hunted on a regular basis, sometimes for the 'thrill of the hunt'. Maybe that was why Artemis blessed Whiskers on Olympus.

(With Bandit)

The fox who went by the name of Bandit was, as Clarise said, cleaning out his den, the fox had forgotten to do so before he left and now most of the meat had gone off. There were no parasites in it though, the nymphs had blessed their dens in a way, no parasite would be able to enter the den. This didn't stop any food left in there from rotting but it did stop and bugs going in, he brought all the rotten food out of his den and left it out for the harpies. They would eat it.

The fox thought back to his rivalry with the other fox, Whiskers. He had felt uncomfortable in his presence, he was to alike to him. It felt wrong, nothing should smell so like him without being him. The other fox had described a similar experience with another fox that shared their features. Maybe they were connected in some way. It was a question he was interested in finding the answer to.

(With Whiskers)

The atmosphere around the camp felt strange, there was a tension in the air but none of the campers knew what it was. Chiron and Mr D seemed tense too for some reason, they knew something but refused to tell the other campers. Whiskers and Annabeth were both curious as to what it meant, neither could understand what was going on, for year rounders like them they were usually in the know of the latest Olympian gossip from a nymph or a satyr but they seemed reluctant to say anything.

All those who seemed to know anything would just glance nervously at the sky when questioned about it. The weather had been getting increasingly worse as well, there were reports of tornadoes and lots of boats going missing. There was something going on in Olympus, Annabeth, being a child of Athena was curious, she wanted to find the answer. Another thing that was happening to close to this to be a coincidence was Chiron himself going to a school to find a half-blood. He was leaving for Yancy Academy soon, apparently Grover had found an unknowing demi-god with a strong scent.

Whiskers was currently watching the clouds, they were behaving violently and thunder was crying from them. He looked back down to Annabeth, who was currently fighting Clarise.

Whiskers had noticed something extremely odd about the weather, there were tornadoes, hurricanes, gale force winds, enormous waves bordering on Tsunamis, and even a few earthquakes. For some reason, though, there was no lightning, in all the storms and all the rain, no lightning struck once and he had been confused by this. From what he could tell, the gods were angry at one another for some reason, particularly the god of the sea and the god of the sky. If that was the case then why was Zeus not firing bolts all over the place, why was he not bringing lightning into this skirmish.

Whiskers did not know, but he had heard that all the other gods were looking for something, one of the nymphs let it slip. Whiskers began to put the pieces together, something was missing, the gods were angry and no lightning had been fired. Spending so much time around Annabeth had done wonders for his deductive reasoning, and spending time around her cabin had further increased this. Whiskers had had heard that Zeus was a very paranoid god and he would jump to conclusions, he also knew, from the stories, that he would definitely punish any who went against him. As far as he could tell, someone had stolen Zeus's master bolt and Zeus was blaming his brother for the theft, Whiskers was sure that one thing was certain.

There were would be dire consequences, for the lightning thief.


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: So that is this part of the story fully updated, sorry for not having all of it done for so long but it took a while to make all the changes, I know it might not look like I made many changes but I did make a lot of minor changes in the wording of things, fixed all the spelling mistakes and added in lots of other parts.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, I'll be updating the lightning thief soon, and then I'll get straight back to the sea of monsters. Just so you know the lightning thief will be completely different, I'm going to go mostly from the jinchuuriki's, hunters and foxes perspective as they travel across country and only include a few scenes from the lightning thief that will be important. The main story won't be completely ignored but it'll be a background story for the most part.**

 **Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed and I hope you read the next part.**


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